Noirin Kinsella/FacebookA devastated mother has shared the questions her seven-year-old son asked after his heart surgery was cancelled for the eighth time.
Nóirín Kinsella took to Facebook to tell her family’s heartbreaking story in a post urging the Irish Minister for Health, Simon Harris, to take action.
The frustrated mother explained how her son, Tommy, was born with a congenital heart defect requiring him to have a complex atrioventricular septal defect repaired under open heart surgery at Our Lady’s Hospital For Sick Children, Crumlin, when he was just 11 months old.
PixabayNow seven years old, Tommy requires a mirtal valve repair/replacement surgery. His operation has been scheduled and cancelled seven times, and as the family prepared yesterday for his operation to finally go ahead today, January 8, they found out it had been cancelled once again.
Nóirín shared a picture of her devastated son hugging his dad, Gary, after learning the news. She described how the young boy ‘never complains and smiles [his] way through life’, though when his surgery was cancelled for the eighth time he started asking his parents heartbreaking questions.
According to the mother, he asked, ‘Why did you say again I could have my surgery and now I can’t?’, ‘Why can I not go back to school to see my friends?’, ‘Why can’t I go play hurling and football mammy?’, adding: ‘Please let me have my surgery so I can go play.’
Dear Simon Harris TDMy name is Nóirín Kinsella and in this picture is my son Tommy and husband Gary.Tommy was born…
Posted by Noirin Kinsella on Tuesday, January 7, 2020
In the Facebook post, Nóirín described how Tommy’s health is a constant worry, writing:
Tommy can no longer go to school and must wear a medical mask in public along with nasal medication in a bid to keep him safe from infection. His condition is a continual nightmare for us parents .
Tommy has been rushed to our general hospital in Wexford 3 times over Christmas with low oxygen levels and blood pressure.
The mother went on to explain Tommy had already had his blood work done in anticipation of the surgery before it was cancelled.
She said the numerous cancellations have been down to ‘bed shortage[s] at the hospital, emergencies and the general understaffing of cardiothoracic surgical teams’.
Addressing Harris, the mother asked:
Do I need to wait until my son is rushed into hospital in a life threatening emergency for him to be treated?
At this stage we are desperate. We are hard working, tax paying citizens . We have to take time off work each time he is due for surgery.
I don’t have those answers [to his questions] for him, so can you please advise me on how best to explain the farce that is our health system to our 7 year old boy?
Simon Harris/FacebookThe mother added the nursing and medical staff at Crumlin Children’s Hospital are ‘wonderful, caring and highly skilled people who really are working very hard under extreme pressure’, and said she was ‘begging’ the Health Minister for help.
Nóirín’s post has since been shared more than 27,000 times and a Change.org petition has been started to ‘Help Tommy’s Cause Change the Healthcare System in [Ireland] for Sick Children’. At the time of writing, the petition has more than 800 signatures, though the creators are hoping to get to 1,000.
The Change.org site includes a letter addressed to Harris aiming to ‘get the attention of the Government to give the resources necessary to provide the children of Ireland with the healthcare they require and deserve’.
Hopefully Tommy will soon get the surgery he has been waiting so long for.
You can sign the petition here.
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.