Maura Derrane: Tragedy of the man who died of shyness
Sunday Mirror, Dec 4, 2005 by Maura Derrane
THE wife of a solicitor who died two days after undergoing an operation to stop blushing was paid nearly EUR5million in compensation during the week.
Eleanor Synnott sued the surgeon and the hospital where the operation took place. The award was one of the biggest ever paid out in Ireland.
Alan Synnott was one of the country's most successful personal injuries solicitors.
But behind the facade of success the solicitor suffered from social phobia and facial blushing. So much so that it was affecting his ability to speak in public.
He was not alone in his suffering. One to two men and three to four women in every hundred people suffer from the same problem.
Social phobia typically starts in the mid-teens; however, it can start in childhood.
The onset may follow a stressful experience in life, or it may start gradually as the person goes through humiliating experiences in life.
Social phobia is usually a lifelong problem, which may get worse later in adulthood.
Sufferers panic at the thought of speaking in public, severe sweating and facial blushing is part of the problem.
No one would expect someone as capable and successful as Alan Synott to suffer from social phobia, and I am sure he fought hard to cover up his fears.
To an extent I can relate to what he went thorough. Since I was a child I had a fear of public speaking. I remember I used to break into a sweat and my hands used to shake uncontrollably as I waited for my turn to read aloud in school.
I had to work really hard to get over the fear and forced myself into situations where I knew I would have to face a crowd.
When I first started working on television I nearly had a panic attack every time I had to do a live report into the news.
Sometimes I could not cover up my trembling voice.
Thank God I have managed to overcome my fear in the last year by doing three hours of live television every morning. But I am still a nervous wreck when it comes to speaking in front of a crowd at a function.
But for those who cannot overcome their phobia surgery is an option that has been very successful.
Endoscopic Thoracic Sympathicotomy is an operation that works by blocking a nerve which is located in the chest cavity.
The operation is performed by making a 1/4 of an inch incision under the armpit.
The surgeon then inserts a small telescope with a miniature camera into the chest cavity. A metallic clamp is then placed on the nerve to block transmission.
Alan Synott was advised that a similar opearation to this could help him overcome his problem. On March 27, 2003, the 44-year-old father of three went into the Bon Secours Private Hospital to undergo surgery.
Court papers revealed that there were problems inserting the tubular device into his chest and that as a result of this his lungs were damaged and massive bleeding occurred.
Although emergency surgery was performed Alan Synott never regained consciousness and died two days later.
I am sure Alan Synnott or his wife never thought for one moment that having the operation would be dangerous, and it should not have been.
It is a worldwide procedure that is performed everyday. The solicitor should not have died.
The EUR5m award (EUR4m for his wife and more than EUR200,000 for each of their three children) may seem like a lot of money but as Eleanor Synott said outside Court, no amount of money is going to compensate her for the loss of her husband.
Copyright 2005 MGN LTD
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.
Death due to ETS
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Guest
9 deaths worldwide from the ETS operation as of June 2003
http://www.easternsurgical.com.au/media ... eating.pdf
The figure of nine is mentioned in the above link. All surgeries where one goes under general anaesthesia can potentially result in death -- especially if the surgeon is inexperienced or the hospital is not good or the patient has other health problems.
The figure of nine is mentioned in the above link. All surgeries where one goes under general anaesthesia can potentially result in death -- especially if the surgeon is inexperienced or the hospital is not good or the patient has other health problems.
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