Top surgeon blasts low-impact whiplash injuries as footballer, 20, awarded €11,350 damages following 2016 crash

A TOP surgeon hit out at the “social disease” of low-impact whiplash injuries as a young soccer player won €11,350 damages.

Consultant orthopaedic surgeon Garry Fenelon made the claims at the Circuit Civil Court yesterday in a case involving young Peamount footballer Lauren Keeler.

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In awarding the 20-year-old €11,350 damages for back and neck injuries, Judge John O’Connor said he did not believe her injuries were still ongoing following the January 2016 accident when she was a sixth year student.

The judge had seen a video of her scoring a goal shortly after the accident and was told she had physiotherapy before and after that match.

Judge O’Connor told Keeler’s barrister Mark J Byrne that although the incident had been a very low impact one he was satisfied an accident had occurred and Keeler had been injured.

The court was told Keeler, of Cleggan Avenue, Ballyfermot, Dublin, had been a front seat passenger in her mother’s car on January 22, 2016 when it had been rear-ended at Station Road, Clondalkin.

Keeler, who claimed her training and playing had been put on hold after the accident, sued Axa insured driver Mark Sheridan.

She had undergone an MRI scan of her lumbar spine — which had proved normal — and had been treated by way of a lumbar spinal rehabilitation therapy programme which involved physiotherapy and hydrotherapy.

Judge O’Connor refused an application by counsel for Axa to dismiss Keeler’s claim should the court consider that she had given false evidence.

The judge said he did not believe Keeler had given false evidence to the court

Mr Fenelon, who had been called by Axa to give evidence, said she had suffered a soft tissue strain to her lower back in January 2016 and it was difficult to account for her claim she had ongoing symptoms three years on.

Whatever ongoing complaints she might have were not in his view related to the 2016 road traffic accident.

He said people involved in low impact accidents expected to have an injury whether they had or not. He described this as a “social disease”.