1 week Ago By Craig Farrell
THE Irish Sun’s Kids Can’t Wait campaign was at the centre a Dáil row again as this week. We told how Harvey Sherratt , eight, waited in pain for two and half years for spinal surgery before he was removed from the waitlist without his parents even being informed. The Dail heard that the curve in Harvey’s spine is now at 110 degrees, twisting his rib cage against his heart and lungs, and making it hard to breathe.
On the first day of the new Dail term, Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald raised Harvey’s case with the Taoiseach, raging: “There are too many children in this awful situation.” Writing in the Irish Sun today, the Sinn Fein leader tells how children with scoliosis don’t need more empty promises from Taoiseach Simon Harris – they need their operations. THE Government’s catastrophic failure of children with scoliosis and spina bifida has been exposed yet again.
Readers of this newspaper will be familiar with its Kids Can’t Wait campaign , and the many harrowing stories of children waiting years in agony for the vital surgery that could save and change their lives. Little Harvey Sherratt from Dublin is one of those children. He has severe scoliosis and spina bifida.
He’s eight years old. He was born in 2016, the same year that Simon Harris was appointed Minister for Health. When Harvey was only one, his parents Gillian and Stephen were told that his ribs had already started to crush his lungs.
That was the year Simon Harris took to the airwaves and made his infamous promise that no child with scoliosis would wait longer than four months for their operations. It’s a promise that has been broken again and again. As children wait and wait, their conditions get worse.
Harvey’s scoliosis is now life-threatening. His spine is twisting his rib cage against his heart and lungs, making it almost impossible for him to breathe. Between October and December last year, Harvey was rushed to hospital five times, twice by ambulance, once on Christmas Day.
Harvey’s parents told me that the disgraceful treatment of their son has pushed them to breaking point. Gillian said that the wait and the lack of treatment is killing their child. They recently discovered that he was silently removed from the surgery waiting list.
Harvey desperately needs his operation. He is not alone. Hundreds are currently waiting.
For children with scoliosis, it is a race against the clock, a race against becoming inoperable, permanent paralysis or worse. Time is quickly running out for so many. All too often the parents share their child’s pain on the national media just to get the Government to listen.
Harvey’s dad told me that it feels like banging your head against a brick wall. Parents feel powerless as they watch their beautiful children deteriorate. They have been left with no choice but to form campaign groups to push for their children to get their surgeries.
Last May, the Taoiseach promised to meet these parents. He still hasn’t delivered on this promise. They had to wait until Monday night to receive an invite to a meeting with the Taoiseach in October! On Wednesday, the Dail returned.
I raised Harvey’s case and the scandal of kids languishing on waiting lists with the Taoiseach. WAITING lists in Ireland have long been a national disgrace. More than 106,000 children are on hospital waiting lists for all treatments.
However, a new source of shame has emerged as 327 children wait for life changing spinal surgeries. Their conditions are getting worse while they languish on waiting lists. Such are the delays, many child patients will be outside the therapeutic window when their treatments are approved.
Earlier this month, the Seanad heard how at least one child has become permanently paralysed since the issue was raised publicly before Christmas. Their plight has been spearheaded by campaigning Senator Tom Clonan, who himself has a child with a disability. Former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has even admitted that the health service is failing these kids.
Children are being allowed to deteriorate due to mismanagement, which has allowed the waiting lists to grow. The Irish Sun’s Kids Can’t Wait campaign aims to shine a light on how the State is failing sick children and give their families a voice. It will also force the Government to do something to clear the backlog of operations and give these children a chance of living a normal life.
Stephen and Gillian were sitting in the public gallery. They shouldn’t have to come to the Dail to fight for their child, nor should they have to go to the media to highlight it. They should have been sitting in a hospital waiting room as Harvey has the operation that would change his life.
Incredibly, the Taoiseach gave no commitment that he would act to end Harvey’s agony. He gave no commitment that he would prioritise ending the gruelling wait, getting children off waiting lists and into operating theatres. Instead, he treated those parents to yet another exercise in spin, soundbites, and an astonishing shirking of his responsibility to very vulnerable children.
Simon Harris has spent the summer telling people that he wants to make Ireland the best country in Europe in which to be a child. That goal must ring very hollow for parents of children with scoliosis and spina bifida who must watch their children live every day in pain. If he was serious about that ambition, his first step would be to ensure that these children urgently get their operations.
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