Our client was thirty-two when she went into a private hospital for an elective operation, an abdominoplasty with muscle repair. She expected a straightforward procedure and a straightforward recovery. She came out of it left without a navel. The cosmetic surgery negligence claim that followed was brought against the private hospital and was resolved in June 2026 with a settlement of €185,000, without admission of liability.

Our client was thirty-two years old at the time of the surgery, going into a private hospital for an elective procedure she expected to be routine.

Our client underwent the tummy tuck and muscle repair surgery and was left without a navel. The lasting harm was not physical so much as personal: the outcome changed how she felt about her own body and had a serious and lasting effect on her confidence and her sense of herself. It was her case that the standard of care she received fell short of what she could reasonably expect from the hospital.

How the claim was investigated

Rose Sweeney brought the claim against the private hospital. In a medical negligence claim in Ireland, the standard of care is measured by the test set out by the Supreme Court in Dunne v National Maternity Hospital [1989], broadly, whether the treating clinician did something that no practitioner of equal specialism and skill, acting with ordinary care, would have done. Claims of this kind are not dealt with by the Injuries Resolution Board and proceed directly through the courts.

A consultant plastic surgeon addressed the surgery itself and the outcome our client had been left with, and a psychologist set out the psychological effect, which was the substance of her injury and needed to be evidenced as carefully as any physical one.

The outcome

The cosmetic surgery negligence claim was resolved in June 2026 by way of a settlement of €185,000, reached without admission of liability by the hospital, and without our client having to give evidence at a contested hearing.

How Coleman Legal helped

Rose Sweeney handled this case from the first consultation. Our client had been hesitant about bringing a claim at all, so Rose worked at a pace our client was comfortable with and treated the case with the discretion it needed. She instructed the consultant plastic surgeon and the psychologist, kept the psychological injury at the centre of the claim rather than treating it as secondary, and dealt with the hospital so that our client did not have to.