'I feared I was dying from an electric shock'

Mother-of-two Lesley Anne Dawson, of Ballon Hill, Ballon, Co Carlow, claims the incident happened when she put her hands into a sink of water to do the washing up at the creche.

A plugged-in electrical appliance had been left in the sink, she claims.

BANG

She says she felt a bang in her head and was thrown four or five feet backwards and hit a press at Dolmen Nursery and Montessori School, Hacketstown Road, Carlow.

"I was shaking and vomiting. I did not know what was wrong with me," she said. "I did not know if I was going to live or die."

She is suing the creche over the incident and claims she has not been able to do any professional singing since.

She told Ms Justice Mary Irvine she was conscientious and had continued to work on the day, but she also rang her mother to say goodbye, as she thought she was going to die.

Ms Dawson said she had won a competition two years before the accident to sing in Nashville and also performed on cruise ships and recorded a single.

However, she had to cancel gigs after the accident and has not returned to professional singing.

On her wedding day, three years after the accident, she sang a song for her husband, but the "trade-off" was that she spent a week of their honeymoon in Mexico in bed on medication.

She is suing Linda Mellon, proprietor of Dolmen Nursery and Montessori School, for alleged negligence as a result of the accident on August 31, 2005.

BLENDER

She claimed a plugged-in electric hand blender was permitted to be in a sink of water and there was a failure to warn of the danger.

The defendant denies negligence and claims there was contributory negligence on Ms Dawson's behalf.

When put to her by counsel for the defendant that an expert simulation of what happened that day showed there was barely perceptible pain, Ms Dawson replied that she knew what happened on the day.

The case continues.

HNEWS@HERALD.IE