Jye Parker: NSW barman who lost arm in keg explosion settles with Bar Beach Bowling Club

A young man who lost his left arm when a beer keg exploded at a NSW bowling club was seeking more than $2 million in compensation.

Jye Parker, who lost his left arm in a beer keg explosion. Picture: Jeremy Piper

A barman who was seeking more than $2 million in compensation after losing his arm in a horrific beer beg explosion at a NSW bowling club six years ago has settled out of court.

On Monday Jye Parker and the Bar Beach Bowling and Sporting Club agreed to settle for an undisclosed amount, vacating a week’s worth of hearings before the Supreme Court.

It is understood the parties came to an agreement for a judgment in favour of Mr Parker, with costs.

Mr Parker was a former club employee. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Mr Parker was 23 in October 2014 when the portable beer keg system he was helping to set up and test exploded at the club by the picturesque Newcastle beach, seriously injuring him.

He was not employed by the club at the time and woke from a coma the next day to find all but a few centimetres of his left arm had been amputated in hospital.

The keg system had no pressure regulator fitted and had overfilled with carbon dioxide.

Mr Parker brought the lawsuit against the club to help him pay for a series of hi-tech surgeries for a prosthetic arm, estimated to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Mr Parker being rushed to hospital in October 2014. Picture: Justin Sanson and Peter Lorimer

The Supreme Court was told in March that Mr Parker was claiming domestic care costs and the cost of proposed surgery to replace his arm with a hi-tech prosthesis.

It heard he was a candidate for muscle reinnervation, which aims to improve the control of prosthetics by using residual nerves to drive the artificial device.

A further surgery to lengthen Mr Parker’s severed humerus bone with titanium was also discussed.

The medical bill was expected to be more than $250,000, the court heard.

He had been locked in a civil legal battle for years.

In 2018 he received an estimated $100,000 payout when he settled a lawsuit against beer company Carlton and United Breweries.

Mr Parker previously worked at the club and was living next door in the greenkeeper’s house on October 10, 2014, when a staff member asked for his help setting up the keg system.

He believed one of the hoses was blocked and removed the it with a spanner before fixing a new hose.

After reconnecting the hose to the system, the keg exploded a short time after.

The traumatic incident rocked the Newcastle community, with locals raising funds to help pay for Mr Parker’s medical costs and recovery.