Married couple trying for baby forced to abandon sexual relations for six months following needle incident on train – court

Ray Managh

May 06 2022 02:04 PM

A married couple, who were participating in a fertility treatment regime in a bid to have children, were forced to abandon sexual relations for six months following a needle-stick incident suffered by the husband on a train, the Circuit Civil Court was told today.

Kenneth Flanagan, of Pearse Place, Fairgreen, Limerick, told Judge James O’Donohue that he and his wife had been trying to conceive a child for 18 months prior to a needle-stick injury to his left hand on June 26th, 2015.

He told Mr Gerard O’Herlihy, for Irish Rail, that they had to defer any plans they had for having children from the time of the incident until the early part of 2016 when he had been given the all-clear following ongoing tests for the detection of any blood borne virus.

Flanagan, who will be 44 in June, said that since the 2015 incident his wife had happily conceived twins, now aged five, and they had since had another baby.

He told Judge O’Donohue he had joined an overcrowded Dublin to Cork train at Portlaoise and there were so many passengers he was unable to find a seat or walk up and down the aisles.

When he had used one of the eight toilets on the train he had washed his hands and since the power hand drier had not been working he had used tissue papers to dry them. He had dropped a piece of paper onto the “wet and dirty floor” and not wishing to add to the litter he had reached down to lift it.

He said that as he pinched the paper to pick it up a needle had pricked his left thumb causing a slight bleeding incident. Staff had been alerted and an ambulance had been waiting at Thurles station to take him to hospital.

Mr Flanagan said he had received follow-up care including three vaccinations at Limerick Hospital for Hepatitis B and ongoing tests to ensure he had not contracted HIV or viral hepatitis.

Mr O’Herlihy, who appeared with Colin Hickey of Arthur McLean Solicitors, said the train had been cleaned before leaving Heuston Station in Dublin. Unfortunately some people using the toilets did allow pieces of paper to fall on the floor. He said staff saw no water on the toilet floor and there were more than 100 seats available in various areas of the train.

“Mr Flanagan is describing a train similar to one travelling between Calcutta and New Delhi short of passengers sitting on the roof,” Mr O’Herlihy said. Trains were cleaned at every turn-around and there were 373 standard and 44 premier seats for 354 passengers leaving Heuston. There were only 335 passengers pulling out of Portlaoise where Mr and Mrs Flanagan joined the train.

Judge O’Donohue said the primary issue for the court was whether Irish Rail could in the circumstances have reasonably prevented such an occurrence on the train. He believed not and dismissed Flanagan’s €60,000 damages claim and ordered that he pay the rail company’s legal costs.