A CO DONEGAL man with cancer who fell at a bus stop in Dublin Airport on his return from a visit to Fatima Shrine in Portugal, has been awarded €30,000 damages against a company that provided him with wheelchair assistance.

Judge Terence O’Sullivan heard in the Circuit Civil Court that former college principal, Dr Sean McBride, of An Riocht, Larganreagh, Downings, Letterkenny, had paid his travel agent a fee for the provision of wheelchair assistance while going and coming through the airport.

Barrister Seamus Breen told the court that that the fee had been passed on to OCS One Complete Solution Limited to provide Dr McBride, described as having seriously compromised mobility, with wheelchair assistance when required.

Breen, who appeared with Denis O’Mahony of Donegal town solicitors, Gallagher McCartney Barry, that a member of OCS staff had wheeled Dr McBride through the airport both to and from the aircraft.

He told the judge that the wheelchair assistant had taken Dr McBride to the Letterkenny bus stop at the airport.

Confusion had been caused when a Monaghan express coach pulled in to the Letterkenny bus space and at this stage the wheelchair assistant had considered his duty complete and had left Dr McBride.

Breen said that due to the confusion Dr McBride had been left to make his way on a cane from his seat at the bus stop the short distance to the front door of the Letterkenny bus when it arrived.

The court heard that Dr McBride had fallen at the steps of the bus and had “smashed his nose” against one of the steps. He had been treated in hospital but had been left with a displaced nasal bone and nasal congestion.

The judge dismissed claims against the Dublin Airport Authority and Bus Eireann on the basis they were not guilty of any negligence and said the wheelchair assistant had left Dr McBride to make his own way unaided onto the bus after he had unfortunately left him.

Dr McBride had told the judge that up until that point the agent from OCS One Complete Solution, Airways Industrial Estate, had been most pleasant and helpful to him.

The judge, awarding €30,000 damages against OCS One Complete Solution said unfortunately the company had “dropped the ball” in what should have been its final moments of care for Dr McBride who had serious mobility problems.