A hospital porter, who claimed that he required surgery on his shoulder due to an injury sustained when he lifted a dead man from a hospital bed, has settled his lifting at work injury claim against the Adelaide and Meath Hospital in Tallaght.
Austin Dowling (59) from Tallaght, County Dublin, alleged in an injury compensation claim that he suffered pain and loss of movement in his right shoulder following the accident in January 2005.
The injury occurred, Austin claimed, as there was no proper equipment provided at the hospital for mortuary porters to slide a body onto a concealment trolley, and he had received no formal training on the use of the type of containment trolley that was being used.
Austin also claimed that there was no safe system for his type of work implemented at the hospital and that the trolley he had been provided with was unsafe.
The lifting at work injury claim was settled for an undisclosed sum without the need for the case to go to court and without an admission of liability from the hospital.