Girl to have 'six-hour operation' at Great Ormond Street hospital

THE YOUNG girl at the centre of last month’s controversy over waiting lists at Crumlin children’s hospital has flown to London for surgery to correct her severe curvature of the spine.

Jamie Murphy left Dublin airport yesterday accompanied by her parents Emer and Peter and aunt Triona O’Brien.

Ms O’Brien said that her niece would undergo a series of “pre-op tests” followed by a “six-hour operation” at the Great Ormond Street hospital on Saturday. She explained that Jamie (11), who was born with spina bifida, weighs just 16kg (35lbs) and is confined to a wheelchair, needs the surgery urgently because the child’s curved spine (scoliosis) is crushing vital organs – which has resulted in “pressure sores on her body and affected her ability to eat”.

She added: “Jamie knows she is going to England to have an operation.”

The operation will be performed privately by a surgeon because the girl had not been referred to Britain’s National Health Service by the HSE nor by the National Treatment Purchase Fund.

The family decided to seek treatment for Jamie abroad after claiming that her life was in danger as a consequence of the unacceptable delays for the surgery at Crumlin.

They faced a daunting financial burden with the surgery alone expected to cost an “estimated £50,000” (€59,000).

Emer and Peter Murphy are unemployed and have three other children. Jamie is also expected to require a lengthy period of intensive care and convalescence. Fundraising efforts had been underway in her home town of Graiguenamanagh in Co Kilkenny when an anonymous benefactor emerged who offered to pay for the surgery.

The man, described as “an ordinary individual” was moved by media reports of her plight, and made the offer to local Green TD Mary White. However, he stipulated that his name be kept secret. Ms White described his gesture as “an extraordinary act of generosity” and the Murphy family expressed delight and gratitude.

Ms White, the Green Party deputy leader, who has “spent the last three weeks highlighting the issue of scoliosis patients” and raised Jamie Murphy’s case in the Dáil, claimed that “significant advances were made last week to support children in Crumlin hospital” .

She said “recession or no recession, cutbacks cannot be allowed to cause pain to children” and that “after discussions between the HSE and the three Dublin paediatric hospitals, it was agreed that Crumlin children’s hospital would revert as a matter of urgency to the HSE with its proposals to address the needs of scoliosis patients between now and the end of the year”.