Assault victim suffered 'catastrophic brain haemorrhage'
A Vietnamese victim of an assault in Temple Bar suffered a "catastrophic brain haemorrhage" after he was kicked and punched in the head during a row with two men, a doctor told a jury at the Central Criminal court today.
Clinical anaethesist at St. James Hospital, Dr Carl Fagan, told a murder trial jury this morning that when he first saw Ly Minh Luong (aged 50) he was on a life support machine in the intensive care unit. "When I first saw him, he was on a life support machine. He required that to remain alive".
"His pupils were fixed and dilated indicating substantial brain injury" said Dr Fagan.
"On a scale of trauma, he was a three, which is the lowest possible rate. He was totally unresponsive to any stimuli," he added.
Dr Fagan told the court Mr Luong's injuries were consistent with "a severe brain injury, there is no ambiguity about that".
He said Mr Luong's family were told that there was no further medical treatment to save Mr Luong's life and that they made the painful decision to turn off his life support machine at 6pm on 19 August 2002.
"His brain was substantially swollen from a catostrophic brain haemorrhage".
Mr Luong died four-and-a-half hours later at 10.30pm that night.
Dr Fagan told the jury that the diagnosis of death was "traumatic brain injury".
Earlier horse and carriage driver Clive Cullen told how he saw a Chinese man being kicked and punched on the ground by "the taller of two men".
Two doormen, Mr James Harmer (aged 26) of Strafford, England and Mr Noel O'Flaherty (aged 33) of McCormack Gardens, Sutton, Co Dublin, have pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Ly Minh Luong (aged 50) at Fownes St, Templebar, Dublin on 19 August 2002.
Both men also deny assaulting a second man, Mr Dong Wei, causing him harm at the same address on 16 August 2002.
