Teen in East Cork in pain 'day and night' whilst awaiting operation 

A boy, aged 15, from Midleton was diagnosed with a ureteropelvic junction obstruction and identified as being in need of surgery in January this year. 

However, his family have been frustrated by miscommunication between hospitals and still have no idea when he will get this surgery.

Filip Kosacki’s mother Kasia Kosacka told The Echo that her son had issues for the last five to seven years on his right side, with pain roughly one day a month, but since January 12 he has been in constant pain.

“He is in pain day and night, sometimes he can’t go to sleep until 5am or 6am. 

“He’s tall so he looks like a man, but he is still a child and I am worried about his mental health.”

She said that he was diagnosed on January 16 in Cork University Hospital (CUH) after they went to the emergency department (ED) there, and on February 28 he got a renogram, with results forwarded to Mercy University Hospital on March 20.

“The Mercy had agreed to see Filip, but on March 21 they declined him because he wasn’t 16 yet.

“On March 22, we went to the ED again but they couldn’t do anything, two or three days later CUH said they referred Filip to Crumlin, but Crumlin said that they didn’t receive anything.”

She said that she has been on the phone constantly.

“I called CUH, they referred him again, but then I was told the referral was incomplete and had been sent back to CUH. 

“There is so much miscommunication between the two hospitals.”

Last week, she said, she “was told by Crumlin that Filip’s results were missing, so I called CUH asking how this is possible and they said Crumlin hadn’t asked for the results”.

Ms Kosacka said that the phone calls were a daily occurrence for her, and she had been “crying on the phone”.

“My son has been in constant pain for three months, staying in his room laying down, he can’t attend school. Filip is in third year and I am collecting pre-exams from the school for him to try and do whenever he feels even a little bit better, because he’s not even able to sit down, and there are no painkillers for his condition.”

Ms Kosacka said that their local TD Liam Quaide had been “very fast and committed to Filip”, raising the issue in the Dáil on two occasions. 

The Social Democrats TD first asked Tánaiste Simon Harris and then education minister Helen McEntee to intervene and help to expedite the process, both of whom promised to link in with health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill. 

Mr Quaide told The Echo that he was grateful for their “empathic response to Filip’s situation” and for their committing to bringing this to the attention of the health minister and HSE. 

Filip was contacted following Mr Quaide raising the issue the first time with a date for an initial consultation in CHI Crumlin, but this is in a month’s time, and they do not know how much longer after that he will have to wait for surgery.

A HSE spokesperson told The Echo: “HSE South West cannot comment on individual cases when to do so might reveal information in relation to identifiable individuals, breaching the ethical requirement on us to observe our duty of confidentiality.”