THE CANCELLATION of life-saving surgery on a four-year-old boy, who suffers up to 400 epileptic seizures a day, is symptomatic of the mismanagement of the health services, it has been claimed.
The cancellation was due to the lack of a paediatric anaesthetist
Cork South Central TD Ciarán Lynch raised the plight of Cian O’Brien from Upton, Co Cork, in the Dáil on Wednesday night when he highlighted that the boy was in urgent need of surgery but had been given no date on which it could be performed.
Mr Lynch said Cian, who was born with cerebral palsy, developed severe epilepsy when he was two and, while it had been possible to control his condition with drugs up until last March, this was no longer possible.
Neurological consultant at Cork University Hospital Olivia O’Mahony recommended the boy go for radical surgery at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, which would involve splitting his brain, said Mr Lynch.
Cian’s family were advised in early August that the operation would take place in Beaumont in the first two weeks of September and that 21 medical staff would be involved, but on September 1st they were told there was no paediatric anaesthetist available.
Minister for Children Barry Andrews told the Dáil that owing to the serious nature of Cian’s case, it was being dealt with as a priority and clinicians involved were working to agree a suitable date for surgery in Beaumont, but he was unable to say when this would be.
Mr Lynch said: “This is an example of the disconnect between the Department of Health and the HSE, where the buck is passed around and the patient suffers.”