The Court of First Instance and Investigation Number 7 of Marbella has partially upheld the civil liability claim filed by the family of a minor who lost vision in their left eye after being struck by a football accidentally thrown by a Physical Education teacher during an extracurricular class at a private school in the locality, sentencing the school to pay compensation of €77,970.95.
The events referred to in the ruling, which is final as the defendant did not file an appeal, date back to May 24, 2012, when the child, who was then 5 years old, was in the schoolyard during a football class. In the proven facts, Judge María García maintains that the teacher “was engaged in a game with the ball involving lifting it and, in doing so, hit the child in the face. It is also worth noting a second assessable action consisting of not activating the protocol to inform the doctor, due to lack of such knowledge, and the fact that it involved a minor who was struck in the face with a ball; furthermore, when handing the child over to the mother, the significance of the blow was minimized.”
Although the child initially did not suffer any consequences from the accident, problems began over a year later This is highlighted by the judge, who considers the expert report issued by Dr. Buenaventura Carreras Egaña valid. The report states that after the impact with the ball, the minor “suffered a retinal injury, not an immediate detachment, but rather a retinal injury resulting in alterations in pigmentation and signs of intraretinal fibroglial proliferation, retinal rigidity, and a certain degree of proliferative vitreoretinopathy, leading to a progressive reduction in the visual field, dismissing the absence of clinical symptoms because according to medical criteria, most minors are not able to explain that they have poor vision due to their age.” “This injury led to the definitive detachment of the retina, with nothing to do with a blow occurring ten days earlier,” as argued by the defendant during the trial.
After the operation, the child’s left eye, who is no longer a student at the Marbella center, “has a visual acuity of 0.3 with an optical correction of minus 3.5, suffering from mild posterior subcapsular opacity and a higher risk of developing cataracts.” The school’s management told SUR that the insurance policy covered the compensation, while also mentioning that the company’s lawyers rejected the possibility of appeal “If this money can help the family, then it’s there,” they said. The lawsuit of the family from Malaga was filed by the law firm Aynat Abogados of Nerja.
The sentence, issued on December 22, found it proven that the school “must bear the duty to respond for its liability in choosing and supervising, as it decided to hire the teacher and entrusted him with the decision to call the doctor or not, despite knowing that he had no medical training.”
Original article from: diariosur.es