The mother of a toddler who was disabled by meningitis 18 months ago has appealed for help in finding nurses to care for the child in his own home.
Matthew McGrath (2), from Gorey, Co Wexford, has been in hospital since May 2004. Staff at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Dublin, say he could go home to his parents and two sisters if his family had round-the-clock nursing support.
He is paralysed from the neck down and, while on a ventilator 24 hours a day, he is "very bright and his brain is working", his mother, Cathy McGrath, said.
Funding was approved by the Health Service Executive (HSE) three months ago to allow him to receive 18 hours of nursing care a day at home. Six or seven nurses are needed to work shifts to care for him. To date none have been found.
"It is frustrating from our point of view that we have the funding to bring him home now but not the nurses," she said.
"The HSE first tried to recruit locally and are now doing so nationally."
Nurses only need to have a general nursing qualification and Crumlin will train them to care for Matthew, Ms McGrath said. "Matthew is very stable. That is why he is able to go home."
She said Matthew had a right to be cared for at home. "We have no other options . . . this is the way he will be for the rest of his life and he can't be in hospital for the rest of his life. We want him home."
Matthew was a fine healthy child until he was 17 months old. "He was toddling around and starting to talk," she said.
Then on May 26th, 2004, he started to vomit. She felt he had a tummy bug but, noticing he was lethargic, she decided to take him to the doctor. The GP suspected a throat infection and sent them home. That night at about 11pm Ms McGrath was "not happy with him" and took him back to the GP. He sent them to A&E at Wexford General Hospital. They arrived at about midnight but it was the next morning, at about 10am, when a consultant said it could be meningitis. Matthew had no rash. He was transferred to Crumlin the next day and has been there since.
Ms McGrath travels to Crumlin several times a week from Wexford to be with him. She and her husband Alan have two other children, Emily (9) and Nicola (7).
Her daughters, she said, were really looking forward to Matthew coming home. She appealed to nurses to consider caring for him. "It's a specific type of job for a specific type of person. I think for a nurse who wants to get away from a hospital setting and wants a few shifts a week it's an ideal job."
An advertisement seeking nursing staff was published in yesterday's Irish Times Health Supplement. The little boy also featured in the Return to Our Lady's series on RTÉ.
Any nurse interested in caring for Matthew should contact the HSE South Eastern Area on 053-23522, ext 357, or apply online at www.careersinhealthcare.ie