Taoiseach confronted over care of children as Dáil resumes

By Cillian Sherlock, PA

A child who died after facing delays in spinal surgery was “failed by Government”, Sinn Féin has said.

The case of nine-year-old Harvey Morrison Sherratt, who had scoliosis and spina bifida, featured prominently in the first Leaders’ Questions since the summer recess.

His parents, Stephen Morrison and Gillian Sherratt, said their son waited years for spinal surgery, during which time the curve in his spine went from 75 degrees to 130 degrees.

By the time Harvey received spinal surgery last December, the curve had reached the point where it could not be fully corrected.

The curve caused his rib cage to twist around his lungs and heart, severely restricting his breathing.

Harvey died on July 29th.

In the Dáil on Wednesday, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said she had been in touch with his parents last week.

They, along with opposition politicians and campaigners, have called for Tánaiste and former health minister Simon Harris to step down after he pledged in 2017 that no child would wait more than four months for scoliosis treatment.

Ms McDonald said: “Stephen and Gillian are heartbroken and shattered by the loss of their beautiful little boy, and we again send them our condolences and our love.”

She added: “In 2017, when Harvey was just one, his parents were told that his ribs were crushing his lungs. That same year, Simon Harris promised that no child would wait more than four months for spinal surgery.

“Over the last eight years that promise has been broken again and again. Harvey did eventually get his surgery last December, but he had waited far too long.

“He was badly let down. He was, in fact, failed by Government.”

Ms McDonald said this was not an isolated case and added that “such failures are shamefully a hallmark of the Taoiseach’s Government”.

In response, Taoiseach Micheal Martin said he wanted to take the opportunity to offer his “deepest condolences” to Harvey’s family.

“No words of condolence or consolation to Harvey’s parents are enough.

“It is an extraordinarily traumatic thing to happen to any family, but in these circumstances even more traumatic in terms of the experiences the family and Harvey had with the hospitals and the clinical world itself, and it is unacceptable.”

He said the Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill had met the HSE and Children’s Health Ireland and “has been working on this issue non-stop” since her appointment.

He added: “My understanding is that the Minister for Health and Tanaiste are due to meet Harvey’s parents in the near future.

“I understand fully the anger and the absolute frustration felt by the parents and by other families who do not receive surgical intervention at the right time for their child.”

Ms McDonald also raised the case of a Cork mother who confronted Mr Martin at the annual Fianna Fáil think-in earlier this week about the healthcare treatments available to her daughter Katie, who has cerebral palsy.

Antoinette Burke said Katie, 18, could get life-changing but expensive surgery in the US.

She said that if her daughter had received the operation at the age of four, she would not need a hip replacement now.

She said she had first contacted his office 15 years ago.

She told the Taoiseach that her daughter has hip dysplasia, a retroverted pelvis, a twisted femur and that one leg is shorter than the other.

Mr Martin told the Dáil he had spoken to Ms Burke since their encounter and they have arranged to meet.

He said interactions between clinical decision-makers and parents needs to be “improved”.

“I do not want to get into discussing individual cases here in public, but clearly the issue there is one of clinical decision-making and a judgment made by clinicians.

“Clinicians seem to have made a decision not to do surgery over many years in that case on a clinical basis. Obviously, any parent wants to do the very best for their child.

“It seems to me that the interaction or engagement between the clinical decision-making and the position of parents is one that has to be improved.”

He added: “There is a very clear disagreement in respect of the clinical judgment that consultants have made in that case. That said, I am going to pursue this – we have spoken to the CEO of the HSE in relation to this case.”