Former hurler seeking damages over workplace injury cycled up to 105km after surgery
High Court Reporters
Former Limerick senior hurler Mark Keane, who has sued after a workplace accident, went cycling for distances up to 105K after undergoing surgery for his injuries, it has been claimed before the High Court.
Mr Keane has already told the court he was "not the man he was, nor the one he hoped to become" because of the injuries and felt "let down" by his employer, Johnson & Johnson.
Mr Keane has told the High Court that ongoing injuries he sustained when he went to the rescue of a co-worker who caught his arm inside machinery at a Johnson & Johnson plant in 2018 have left him feeling “emasculated and mentally destroyed”.
An accomplished hurler, Mr Keane won three consecutive All-Irelands with Limerick under 21s between 2000 and 2002 and played senior from 2000 to 2006.
Mr Keane has taken his case against Johnson & Johnson Vision Care (Ireland) over the incident that occurred in September 2018 at their plant in the National Technological Park, Plassey, Co Limerick.
The 43-year-old is alleging Johnson & Johnson were negligent and breached their duty of care towards him on September 10th, 2018, while he was working as a technician making contact lenses. Mr Keane alleges the company failed to provide him with a safe place of work and a safe system of work and is seeking damages.
At the High Court on Tuesday, Murray Johnson SC, for Johnson & Johnson, said the company "absolutely" accepted responsibility for the injury Mr Keane suffered in the form of the nerve damage, and injury to the plaintiff's right hand, but did not accept responsibility for Mr Keane's claim of injury to his right shoulder.
In his cross-examination of Mr Keane, Mr Johnson said Mr Keane had gone on 10-12 cycles of between 27 and 105 kilometres in the summer of 2019, despite his claim that he had been in pain since the incident and could not raise his arm above his head.
Mr Keane accepted he had gone cycling socially with friends to get out of the house for his mental health after the injury but that he did not enter into any races. He said he cycled in June 2019 but has not done so since.
Mr Keane said he had cycled on a racer bike, meaning that he was leaning forward, that gear changes were quickly done by a light flip-switch and that there had not been discomforting weight pressure on the handlebars.
Mr Johnson said the first his clients knew of the complaint of shoulder pain, submitted by Mr Keane, was in November of last year.
"That was the first we heard of it," he said.
Mr Johnson said the first medical record of a shoulder pain complaint was not until November 2020, "two years and two months after the accident".
Mr Keane said he had informed doctors of shoulder, neck and hand injury but that it had been referred to as nerve pain in reports.
He said he had been in a sling "for the most part" of his time after the incident in September 2018 and before his February 2019 operation.
Mr Johnson put it to him the company had "suggested or offered" two positions to Mr Keane on a "trial or phased basis" so he could return to work to which Mr Keane said: "I totally refute that. They were not offered as positions."
Mr Keane said his doctor discounted one position on medical grounds and that he had done an interview for the second role but never heard back from the company.
Before the cross-examination was completed, Mr Johnson said that his side had previously made an offer of mediation but received no response from Mr Keane's lawyers.
Mr Justice Paul Coffey said it was the policy of the court to promote mediation if it was likely to be effective and noted that there had been a long-standing relationship between the parties.
Mr Justice Coffey said a "third party might be very helpful in persuading the parties to move from their extreme positions".
The plaintiff's and defendant's sides then arranged for mediation to be engaged in tomorrow morning, with the court available in the afternoon.
"There's nothing to be lost," said Mr Justice Coffey.
