SURGEONS IN Britain have successfully completed two operations on a Cork schoolgirl whose case was publicised earlier this year when her mother criticised the health service for failing to arrange surgery to straighten the girl's severely twisted spine.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) initially refused to foot the bill for the €100,000 operation in Britain on 12-year-old Ann-Marie Kelleher of Killavullen, near Mallow in Cork.
But the HSE changed its position after her mother, Bernie, highlighted the case in the media and an anonymous benefactor offered to fund the procedure.
Ann-Marie has been unable to attend school for the past year because she is bent over in pain with scoliosis. Planned surgery was cancelled several times last year by Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Dublin.
Her family, frustrated that her condition was deteriorating, went to see a specialist in London in January and were told she could be operated on there within weeks if the procedure was paid for.
The operations, funded by the HSE, were carried out this month at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore, Middlesex, by a surgeon expert in the treatment of children with Rett syndrome and scoliosis. Ann-Marie has both conditions.
Bernie Kelleher said yesterday she was very pleased with the outcome of the operations.
"The surgeon and his team said they really thought that Ann-Marie would throw them a whole host of difficulties. We had a few down days and down nights. But she came out of it much better than we and the surgeon thought," she said. "The surgeon did say she probably wouldn't be breathing on her own and that she would be on a ventilator, and indeed it was a frightening thing to see. "But she is breathing on her own which is absolutely massive."
Doctors have told the Kellehers that they hope Ann-Marie will be fit enough to return home after about 10 weeks. However, she will have to return to Stanmore hospital for follow-up consultations.
Ms Kelleher said the surgery involved "massive trauma" on her daughter's body and the hope was that Ann-Marie would be able to walk unassisted. "I have no doubt at all that we are in the best hands here, and the care is 100 per cent. It is a brilliant hospital and the work that is done here is truly amazing," she said.
When Ann-Marie was assessed in Crumlin in June 2007, the curvature to her spine was put at 64 degrees. In London in January, the Kellehers were told it had worsened to more than 100 per cent.
It is expected the surgery will have reduced her curvature to about 30 degrees.