Girl awarded €3k after drinking holiday-centre slush puppy contaminated with cleaning fluid

A drink, which a mother bought for her 13-year-old daughter in a holiday centre, was contaminated with a corrosive cleaning fluid, Judge John O’Connor was told in the Circuit Civil court today.
Girl awarded €3k after drinking holiday-centre slush puppy contaminated with cleaning fluid
Picture: Denis Minihane

A drink, which a mother bought for her 13-year-old daughter in a holiday centre, was contaminated with a corrosive cleaning fluid, Judge John O’Connor was told in the Circuit Civil court today.

Barrister Harrriet Meagher had provided the court with a legal opinion in which she stated that Kareena Hoollah, now aged 15, had fully recovered from a burning sensation on her tongue by about two weeks following the incident.

Judge O’Connor was told by Kareena’s solicitor Peter Duff, during a virtual hearing of the case, that the incident had happened while she and her mother, Babita Hoolah, had been holidaying at the Trabolgan Holiday Centre in Co Cork.

The court heard that on June 17, 2018, Ms Hoollah had bought her daughter a frozen drink known as a slush puppy.

Ms Meagher said Kareena had taken one mouthful of the drink and spat it out when she felt a burning sensation in her mouth.

It had transpired that the drink had been contaminated with corrosive cleaning fluid.

Counsel said Kareena’s mother had tested and swallowed some of the drink and both she and her daughter had to be taken by ambulance from Trabolgan to Cork University Hospital in the early hours of the morning of June 18, 2018 where an accident and emergency doctor had noted that corrosion was evident on Kareena’s tongue.

Kareena, of The Green, Whitfield Manor, Bettystown, Co Meath, had later attended her GP, Dr Vicki Merchant, at Strand Medical Centre, Laytown, who, in a medical report to the court, said Kareena had suffered from a burning sensation on her tongue following the incident, especially while eating.

Her symptoms had cleared up within two weeks.

Judge O’Connor heard that Kareena, through her mother, had sued Trabolgan Holiday Centre and the Injuries Board had assessed her damages at €3,000.

The judge said that although the Injuries Board assessment and subsequent settlement offer had not been very generous he would approve the offer together with District Court costs.

Ms Meagher and Mr Duff had both recommended the court’s acceptance of the assessed damages.

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