SEVERAL VIABLE opportunities to transport a 14-year-old Leitrim girl to London on time for a liver transplant at the weekend were lost.
The private patient transport company Emergency Medical Support Services, which co-ordinates air transfer arrangements on behalf of Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Dublin, confirmed yesterday that the assistance of the UK’s RAF was sought at 8.44pm on Saturday when it appeared that neither the Air Corps nor the Irish Coast Guard could arrange transport to King’s College Hospital, in London, for Maedhbh McGivern from Ballinamore.
It also said that at 9.04pm Crumlin hospital had sourced a private aircraft “but were waiting on funding approval for its use”. However, Crumlin insisted last night that funding was not an issue.
The Air Corps has confirmed the Government jet was back in Baldonnel, Dublin, at 10.30pm on Saturday, having taken President Mary McAleese from the royal wedding in Monaco. The Air Corps received a request for an aircraft at 7.45pm and had informed the HSE, with which it has a service level agreement, that none was available at that time, but that the Government jet would be back by 10.30pm.
“The Air Corps was informed that this option would not be required and that alternative arrangements would be made for the patient transfer,” a spokesman said.
It would have taken about half an hour for it to fly from Baldonnel to Sligo, and one hour 20 minutes to fly from Sligo to London. Irish Coast Guard sources say there was no technical difficulty with the Sikorsky helicopter at its Sligo base, and that the first call it received about the transfer request was at 9.58pm. The HSE had said the first call to the Coast Guard was made at 8.08pm and that no aircraft was available.
When it was clear a Coast Guard helicopter was available in Sligo at about 10pm, the McGivern family were asked to go there and the other efforts to get an aircraft were stood down. Crumlin had sourced an aircraft from the UK which would have been available at about 11.30pm.
Once in Sligo, the McGivern family were told it would take four hours for the Coast Guard helicopter to get to London. When King’s College Hospital was informed of this, the family was advised there was no point in travelling because the shelf-life of the donor liver would have exceeded in that time.
A lack of co-ordination between those trying to find air transport for Maedhbh seems to have contributed to her missing an opportunity to have a long-awaited liver transplant, her mother Assumpta said last night.
Minister for Health James Reilly apologised to the family for “the traumatic events that have led to this lost opportunity”. An inquiry will be carried out by the Health Information and Quality Authority.