The husband of a Kerry woman suffering from multiple sclerosis and waiting nine months for the implantation of a pain pump said yesterday he could not understand why a 1½-hour procedure should take such organisation.
The HSE South has told him the pump is available but a multidisciplinary team is required.
Tony O'Gorman of Doon, Ballybunion, was contacted by HSE South on Wednesday night after Labour leader Pat Rabbitte raised the plight of Mr O'Gorman's 54-year-old wife, Breda, in the Dáil earlier that day.
Mr O'Gorman said he travelled to see Mr Rabbitte after failing to make headway with the health executive about the length of time his wife was waiting for an operation to insert an intrathecal baclofen pump. This is a pain relief device which delivers concentrated amounts of medication to the spinal cord for chronic severe pain management and to control muscle spasm.
Mrs O'Gorman, who suffers from spastic paresis, was found suitable for the pump last November, but has been waiting since. She is crippled with pain, unable to move around, has to be lifted from her bed to her wheelchair and suffers from pressure sores. The family offered to pay for the procedure, but nothing has happened.
The HSE told Mr O'Gorman on Wednesday that "a multidisciplinary team approach" was required to insert the €17,000 pump device and for "further life-long clinical maintenance by a specialist pain management team". The health executive said a care plan was being put in place.