Alanna Idris Quinn (17) loses sight in eye and requires major surgery after attack

Teenager Alanna Idris Quinn, who was attacked in Dublin late last year, has lost sight in an eye and needs reconstructive surgery on her eye socket, using bones from her hip. The 17-year-old and a male friend she was with were attacked close to the Civic Offices, Ballyfermot Road, Dublin, on December 30th.

A major Garda investigation has been under way since the attack, with two males already before the courts. A teenage boy was also arrested for questioning on Wednesday, five weeks after the attack, before being released on Thursday. Another male juvenile was arrested on Thursday morning, and was being detained at a Garda station in west Dublin under section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984. The latest arrest brings to five the number questioned so far in relation to the incident.

Ms Idris Quinn suffered a ruptured eyeball and fractures to her cheek and eye socket. She also suffered broken teeth and was left with a large wound just below her eye.

While she has undergone surgeries, she was told by medics from the outset her sight was at risk and that she may have to have an eye removed. The latest information on her condition suggests her sight has been lost in this eye and will not return.

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Update

In an update on her daughter's condition, Ms Idris Quinn's mother Jamie Ambers said she and Alanna's father had decided in recent weeks to limit the amount of information about the case they shared on social media. She believed this had given rise to the impression her daughter was "on the mend", although this was not the case.

“Her eye is not ever going to be better,” Ms Ambers told people who had donated to a GoFundMe campaign for her daughter and her male friend, which has raised more than €95,000 to date.

“As hopeful as I am for a miracle, the doctors have told us a number of times that her sight is gone and they are certain it will not return. Five weeks later she is still unable to open her eyelid and the consultant has said that it may be nerve damage and he cannot say if that will get any better.

“She had an ultrasound scan on her eye last Friday and it showed that there is a possibility her retina is detached, so she has been referred to a retinal consultant to see if that is the case. She spent the best part of Monday and Tuesday in the emergency department of the Eye & Ear [hospital] because she was in so much pain.”

‘No cheekbone’

Ms Ambers added that Alanna “literally has no cheekbone and only half an eye socket” and would require a significant surgery involving a hospital stay of three to four days and about one month to recover.

“She has to have bone taken from her hip to reconstruct her eye socket and then a plate inserted to replace what was once her cheekbone but is now just an open hole,” she said, adding that her daughter already had two facial scars and the next surgery would “leave a scar from her temple area to her inner eye”.