A regional neurosurgery unit is being sought in Galway after a young Mayo accident victim had to wait 10 days for specialist assessment in Dublin.
Mr Christopher Flynn, of Kilkelly, Co Mayo, spent his 19th birthday in Mayo General Hospital, and is still in intensive care after he was involved in a road accident on December 13th last. Although he sustained serious injuries, he had to wait 10 days for a bed in Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, where he could be given an MRI scan to detect possible brain damage and have his condition assessed by neurosurgeons.
Mr Flynn was in a coma for much of the time, and spent four days at Beaumont before being transferred back to Mayo. "He is now out of a coma, and we have been told that there is no brain damage," his father, Mr Danny Flynn, told The Irish Times.
"We are hoping that he will make a recovery in time, and the hospital staff have been fantastic, as has the public response to this. But we feel that if he hadn't had to wait for the bed in Dublin, his recovery might have been a lot quicker." Mr Flynn said that he had no idea of the state of health services in the west until his son was involved in the accident, as the family had lived in Dublin before moving to Kilkelly. Currently, Dublin and Cork are the two locations for neurosurgical services.
"It is maddening to see the Western Health Board with a budget surplus of €15 million, when there is no MRI scanner in Mayo and no neurosurgical unit in this region,"Mr Flynn said.
Galway does have MRI facilities, but the absence of a full regional neurosurgical unit in the west has been the focus of a campaign spearheaded by Ms Pam Fleming, whose son Sammy sustained brain damage in a road accident in 1997. She has argued that road accident victims and other critically ill patients west of the Shannon cannot be treated in the "golden hour", due to the lack of a neurosurgery services.
The Western Neurosurgery Campaign has already secured the offer of a $4 million gamma knife for such a unit, if the Minister for Health will sanction construction of the facilities in the redevelopment of University College Hospital, Galway (UCHG). The offer of equipment was made by Prof Patrick Kelly, New York professor of neurosurgery, and a further donation of $1 million has been raised by Mrs Pat O'Dwyer, wife of the late Paul O'Dwyer, who founded the O'Dwyer Cheshire Home here.
Last year, Mrs O'Dwyer warned that Prof Kelly's offer was "hanging by a thread", due to continued delays by the Department of Health in responding. Renewing her appeal to the Minister this week, Ms Fleming said that the issue was "not just about US support, but about people's lives".
The Department has referred the issue to Comhairle na nOspidéal, which is currently reviewing the State's neurosurgical services. The Western Health Board and the Western Neurosurgery Campaign met with the comhairle reviewing team a year ago next month and both made the case for a unit at UCHG. However, the case against the west has been made by neurosurgeons at Beaumont Hospital, who have said a State- run emergency air ambulance service would be preferable.
Prof Jack Phillips of Beaumont acknowledged that there could be an argument for a unit in the west to cater for emergencies and spinal injuries. However, a third national neurosurgery unit, based in Galway, would not be viable, and would not meet the standards demanded by the Specialist Advisory Committee in Neurosurgery for Britain and Ireland, Mr Daniel Rawluk, director of the national department of neurosurgery at Beaumont, and programme director for training in Ireland, said.
The Mayo Independent TD, Dr Jerry Cowley, said that he was in favour of both an emergency medical helicopter service and a regional neurosurgery unit.
