‘This is your legacy’: Cork mother confronts Taoiseach at Fianna Fáil think-in

The mother of a young Cobh woman with disabilities wept as she confronted Taoiseach Micheál Marin on his way into the Fianna Fáil think-in at the Rochestown Park Hotel this morning.

Antoinette Burke, whose 18-year-old daughter Katie Byrne has cerebral palsy, autism, and severe physical disabilities, said her daughter needed surgery which, she claimed, the HSE was refusing to carry out.

“Katie is now 18, she’s been suffering since she was four years old, she has hip dysplasia, she has a retroverted pelvis, she has a twisted femur, and one leg is shorter than the other, and the ball-and-socket is so worn down that it’s saucer-shaped, and no-one in this country would do anything for her,” Ms Burke said.

“I need, Katie needs help, and I can’t stand by when you are all standing here and you’re going in there to talk about healthcare, and this is your legacy, this is 15 years on the 24th of this month Katie will be waiting on surgery.” 

The interaction, outside the hotel reception door, lasted more than five minutes, with a visibly emotional Ms Burke shaking as she spoke to the Taoiseach, who listened intently.

Ms Burke said she had first contacted Mr Martin’s office in 2010, when Katie was four, and she had subsequently contacted the offices of Tánaiste Simon Harris and health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill.

She claimed that if her daughter had received surgery when she was a child, she would not need a hip replacement now, an operation which could only now be carried out in the United States and would cost an estimated €300,000.

Ms Burke is currently fundraising to cover the cost of that surgery.

She said Ms Carroll McNeill had said she could not direct the HSE anyone to carry out the surgery her daughter needs, and she asked Mr Martin why he has a minister who cannot make such directions.

“Ministers can’t direct surgeons against their judgement,” Mr Martin said, but he promised he would engage with Ms Burke and with clinicians, and he said he would talk to her about the possibility of availing of the treatment abroad scheme.

The encounter ended with a handshake, but Ms Burke later told The Echo she didn’t know whether Mr Martin had really listened to her.

Speaking to journalists later, the Taoiseach said Government was doing all it possibly could to improve services for children needing hip surgeries.

He said that from reading a note Ms Burke had given him, it was his understanding that consultants had apparently said that surgery was not the right course of action for Katie, and they had decided not to carry out the surgery on clinical grounds.

“I would have to explore that further with the consultants concerned. It’s a very, very difficult case for a mother, and obviously, the struggle and the journey for that family has been a long one,” he said.

“Families and mothers want the best for their child, I understand that fully, and mothers and fathers will do everything for their child, and that means at times very difficult engagements with consultants and clinicians,” he said.

Mr Martin repeated his undertaking to engage further with Ms Burke and with the HSE.

“I always say to professionals and to all of us here that we have to always try and look at these cases through the prism of the family and the mother and father and the child,” he said.