{"id":173,"date":"2015-03-01T21:55:39","date_gmt":"2015-03-01T18:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lawlorkiernan.ie\/?p=173"},"modified":"2024-12-05T13:32:07","modified_gmt":"2024-12-05T10:32:07","slug":"sunday-times-march-1-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lawlorkiernan.ie\/de\/sunday-times-march-1-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday Times \u2013 March 1, 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"
Doctor pays patient over data breach<\/h6>\n
Mark Tighe \u2013 1st March 2015<\/em><\/h6>\n

The woman, identified only as CW in a case heard before Judge Jacqueline Linnane in Dublin Circuit Court last week, sued for damages for breach of her data protection rights.<\/p>\n

Evidence was given that the disclosure of her medical files triggered a depressive adjustment disorder that required the woman to be prescribed antidepressants. She said she was devastated by the breach of her trust by Brian Byrnes, her doctor of 38 years.<\/p>\n

Claims for damages for data protection breaches are rare and the High Court has ruled plaintiffs must show they were negatively affected to receive compensation.
\nTony Delaney, an assistant data protection commissioner (DPC), was about to give evidence about how his office investigated the case when Rory White, barrister for Byrnes, said the breach was admitted.<\/p>\n

CW, who walked with the aid of crutches, told the judge she worked as a cleaner for 30 years before damaging her knee on her stairs at home. She said Genworth, her insurer, asked for medical records related to her knee injury. CW said she had a reading age of six to seven and needed help to sign a consent form allowing relevant medical records to be disclosed.
\nThe insurer refused to pay out, saying that CW had failed to declare her osteoporosis. CW said she was unaware of this as she was told she simply had \u201cwear and tear\u201d.<\/p>\n

She requested details of what was sent to Genworth by Byrnes and in August 2012 received records back. On the first page she could see Byrnes had sent details of her cervical smear tests and \u201cwoman problems in general\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said she had been attending Byrnes for almost 40 years and had a \u201ctrusting relationship\u201d with him. Crying as she spoke, CW said, \u201cI felt devastated. This had nothing to do with my knee. I felt betrayed. My trust in Dr. Byrnes was broken\u201d.<\/p>\n

The file included details of medication she was prescribed for a neck injury.<\/p>\n

She said after discovering the disclosure Byrnes snubbed her by refusing to give her appointments. She recounted one occasion when she was in the waiting room of his clinic and the doctor shook hands with everyone except her. The doctor retired in December 2013. She said that she was very sad she never got a chance to thank him for all the help he had given her over the years.<\/p>\n

She added that, although Byrnes told the DPC he apologised to her, he made no contact with her.<\/p>\n

CW said she had coped with everything negative that happened in her life, including a chronic disease, her neck injury, her marriage break-up, the death of her mother, the death of a granddaughter and struggles with her weight, but she never previously required antidepressants.<\/p>\n

Since discovering the data breach she stopped attending her literacy course because she could not concentrate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t cope with this one\u201d, she said. \u201cThat\u2019s when I went on antidepressants\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said she now cried at \u201csilly things\u201d.<\/p>\n

In cross-examination White suggested CW had symptoms of depression before the disclosure of her medical records. He pointed out she attended a psychotherapist who counselled people with her chronic condition. He said notes from her doctor showed she had \u201cterrible nightmares\u201d about the court case and dreams about \u201csolicitors screaming at me\u201d. He suggested her \u201cmain stresser\u201d was the litigation.<\/p>\n

Jennifer Doherty, a consultant psychiatrist based in Belfast, said CW was very depressed. \u201cShe felt violated\u201d, said Doherty, who gave evidence on behalf of CW. \u201cHer trust in healthcare professionals was gone\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Martina O\u2019Neill, barrister for CW, said the case had been settled and CW would get her legal costs.<\/p>\n

Linnane said she had \u201cutmost admiration\u201d for CW and said she was \u201cvery brave\u201d in giving evidence.<\/p>\n

After the hearing Byrnes met his former patient and apologised.<\/p>\n

Niall Kiernan, a solicitor with Lawlor Partners, who represented CW, said he believed the settlement was the largest made in Ireland for a data protection breach.<\/p>\n

The maximum that the court could have awarded was \u20ac38,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cData controllers and processors must ensure personal information remains confidential and secure\u201d, said Kiernan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Doctor pays patient over data breach Mark Tighe \u2013 1st March 2015 The woman, identified only as CW in a case heard before Judge Jacqueline Linnane in Dublin Circuit Court last week, sued for damages for breach of her data protection rights. Evidence was given that the disclosure of her medical files triggered a depressive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bez-rubriki"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawlorkiernan.ie\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawlorkiernan.ie\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawlorkiernan.ie\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawlorkiernan.ie\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawlorkiernan.ie\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lawlorkiernan.ie\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":417,"href":"https:\/\/lawlorkiernan.ie\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173\/revisions\/417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawlorkiernan.ie\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawlorkiernan.ie\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawlorkiernan.ie\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawlorkiernan.ie\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}