Hospital delays child heart operation for 11 months

REBECCA METCALFE is 17 months old and has a hole in her heart. She has been seeing doctors most of her life. She was a day old when they noticed something wrong at Holles Street hospital in Dublin, and she attended Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin for the first time when she was six days old.

Last October at Our Lady's, Rebecca underwent a thorough investigation.

"They put a tube up her arm all the way to her heart," her mother Bernadette recalled at their home in Pearse House in Pearse Street, Dublin, yesterday. They found the hole in Rebecca's heart was even bigger than was thought. Surgery was a necessity, they concluded.

On average Rebecca has attended appointments at Our Lady's paediatric cardiac unit every three months, although she was last there "about two months ago", according to her mother. That was when they made an appointment for her for July 15th.

On May 2nd her mother was sent a letter by the hospital notifying her that Rebecca's appointment date was being changed. She was asked to attend instead at 9 a.m. on June 16th... 1998. No explanation was given for the 11-month postponement, but she was asked to attend 10 minutes early to allow for registration.

Her mother wrote to the Department of Health about the situation. She received a letter, dated May 20th, from the Minister's private secretary saying the matter was "receiving attention".

Friends of Rebecca's mother have been in regular contact with the Department since. Yesterday "a woman there" told a friend of Rebecca's mother that they "really" were looking into the matter and not to ring them again.

Rebecca's mother is very worried about her, as she keeps getting infections and is on different antibiotics "nearly every two months". In tests at Our Lady's last Christmas they found traces of meningitis in her blood, but all turned out well. However, besides Rebecca's susceptibility to infection, her mother is very worried she will be too old for a successful operation by the time surgery can be performed on her, as happens with older children.

Heart disease runs on the female side of Rebecca's family. Her grandmother had a triple by-pass at 51, and her grand-aunt died at 58 following a massive heart attack. Rebecca's mother worries about such things.

As for Rebecca, yesterday she was only interested in how the clasp on her push cart worked.