Tot needs life-saving op now, parents plead
Saturday October 24 2009
THE parents of a seriously ill two-year-old are urging the Government to provide a bed to give her vital open-heart surgery -- or else they fear she might die.
Gemma Lawlor (45) and Mark Doyle (48), who are living in Millstream, Blackbog Road, Carlow, say their little girl Joy has been turning blue in recent days and she desperately needs open-heart surgery.
Joy suffers from atrial septal defect, also known as a hole in the heart, and pulmonary stenosis, which is a narrowing of a heart valve, and she is on a waiting list in Our Lady's Hospital, Crumlin for the surgery.
However, the parents fear it may be too late for their daughter when surgery becomes available because her heart may not be able to fully recover.
"On September 1, she was booked in for a keyhole operation but it had to be cancelled because of the lack of staffing in Crumlin. Two weeks later she had the surgery but they found that the hole in her heart was too big and her heart was too small," her mum Gemma told the Herald.
"She has to have open heart surgery in the next few weeks, but the surgeon says he can't tell when it's going to be. It's the staffing of those beds that the Government is not funding at the moment," she added.
The family contacted the Ray D'Arcy Show on Today FM to highlight their plight.
Joy is Vietnamese and her parents Mark and Gemma adopted her when she was aged six months, but they learned that she had heart defects soon afterwards.
Joy's parents are now launching a nationwide campaign called Save Joy, which is calling on everyone to download a poster from www.savejoy.org and place it in their car window or house window, in order to get the Government to listen.
A spokeswoman for Crumlin Hospital said the HSE has now committed to replacing 13 of the hospitals existing ICU beds and introducing four new ICU beds.
She explained: "This will bring the total number of ICU beds at Crumlin to 25. This project will be completed within 18 months. The hospital and the HSE are currently examining options to address the current cardiac waiting list service need in advance of the new ICU project being completed," she added.
hnews@herald.ie
- Geraldine Gittens
