A woman who claims she ended up with multiple wound infections after surgery to remove silicone breast implants has sued in the High Court.
Communications manager Roisin Milmoe (42) told the court that after the €7,000 surgery, she started bleeding from one breast and had to be taken back to theater hours later for a second operation.
Months later, he said, he continued to have nightmares about the November 2015 event.
“I would wake up screaming and shouting. It was very painful for me. I was affected by it for months,” he told Judge Denise Brett.
Responding to her senior counsel Aidan Walsh, appearing with David McGrath SC, Ms Milmoe said she has significant scarring on her chest and can be seen nine years after the operation.
Ms Milmoe, from Dundrum, Dublin, sued plastic surgeon Labros Chatzis, of Baggot Street Lower, Dublin, who carried out the surgery, and Sheldon Investments Limited, trading as River Medical Group, based in Pleasants Street, in Dublin. and which operated the River Medical Group in Lower Baggot Street, Dublin, for her care afterwards.
It is alleged that in October 2015 Ms Milmoe attended the River Medical Group clinic and was placed under the care of the cosmetic surgeon.
The surgery, a bilateral breast implant removal combined with bilateral breast mastopexy, was carried out by the plastic surgeon on 7th November 2015 in a Waterford theatre.
He claimed to have developed multiple post-operative infections that required multiple courses of antibiotics.
Ms Milmoe alleged that there was a failure to treat her appropriately or with appropriate skill and that no or any appropriate measures were taken regarding possible infection or no or any appropriate antibiotics were prescribed to prevent infection in a timely manner or at all.
He further claims that he had delayed healing and that there was an alleged failure to properly assess the risk of infection.
It is also claimed that during a post-operative check-up at the River Medical Group clinic a week after the operation she was examined by a nurse and it was decided to see a doctor.
All claims are also denied by the defendants and Sheldon Investments, trading as River Medical Group, also denies providing Ms Milmoe with the implant removed.
Ms Milmoe, who was giving evidence on the first day of her action, said she had the implants in Turkey in 2007 and was very happy with them, but after a car accident she was too heavy and opted to have the implants removed.
After the three-hour operation in 2015 she felt very sick and her left breast was bleeding to the extent that it was “covering the sheets”. She said she was in agony and after the weekend operation she was discharged home on Monday and was given a painkiller on discharge.
She said she was “really traumatised” and by the second week she had “open sores” as the breasts wouldn’t heal.
She told the court that after her operation she expected to have “access to someone who cared” but was “ignored”.
He said RiverMedical had said there would be a 24/7 aftercare service, but “they didn’t.”
After the operation, she said, she had to take a course of antibiotics and is now left with a crease in her right nipple as well as scarring in her breast area.
He said it hurt and it felt like chronic pain.
“You can still see the scars nine years later,” he told the judge.
The case continues.
