A doctor has sued in the High Court seeking damages after suffering a permanent injury to his eye when he was struck by a paintball during a stag party activity.
Consultant in paediatric histopathology John O’Neill claims a mask he was wearing slipped down his face and within a second a paintball struck him in the eye.
He was in Garristown, Co Meath, paintballing as part of stag party in 2016.
Mr O’Neill told the High Court the safety mask he was given for paintballing had the chin strap missing on one side, a visor that was quite scratched and the mask looked old.
He says he now has permanent retinal damage and partial vision loss in his right eye and had to have surgery after a traumatic cataract developed.
“I still notice clouding or blurring of vision. My eyes tire quickly as I am compensating for the bad eye. I just use my good eye now,” he told the court.
All of the claims are denied by Murray Zone Ltd, which owns the centre where the paintballing took place. It contends Mr O’Neill did not comply with instructions, loosened the mask himself and did not call a halt to the game when he found the mask was allegedly not secure.
Ms Justice Emily Egan asked for the mask to be brought to court for inspection.
Mr O’Neill (43), from Dún Laoghaire, Dublin, has sued Murray Zone Ltd, with registered offices at Mullaghboy Industrial Estate, Navan, Co Meath, as the owners of Puddenhill Activity Centre, Garristown, as a result of the incident on September 17th, 2016.
Opening the case, Jonathan Kilfeather SC, with Colm Condon SC, told the court Mr O’Neill’s eyesight is not much better than it was three or four days after the accident and at one stage it was feared he may have ruptured his eye. Mr O’Neill was very concerned about his ability to function as a pathologist, he said. He said his field of vision is restricted and he cannot make out letters in print close up and has problems with glare.
In his case he seeks damages and €20,000 for loss of earnings as he had been due to sit a postgraduate exam the week after the accident and could not do it and as a result he is claiming his career progression was delayed by six months.
In evidence, Mr O’Neill said there were 11 in the party in two teams and it was agreed that a headshot would not count as a kill. He said he was on his third game of paintballing and there was a lot of firing.
He said he could feel his mask slipped but he was carrying his paintball gun as they ran to an aircraft on the paintballing field.
“Within a second the paintball struck me in my eye,” he said. Play appeared to go on until somebody noticed him on the ground, he said.
He said he had a throbbing pain and he could not see out of his eye and he was told it did not look too bad.
He was brought to a local hospital and transferred to a Dublin hospital where he was told he had a significant eye injury.
“I was in pain and I started to worry about my career,” he told the judge.
Mr O’Neill was in hospital for five days and his sight returned but he now has permanent retinal damage and loss of part of his field of vision.
The case before Ms Justice Egan continues.
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