Medics are failing my child with cancelled operations

Mum speaks out as little Blathnaid waits for urgent double surgery

- VIVIENNE AITKEN

A WORRIED mum is preparing to take her precious little girl for an operation this week but fears a lack of high dependency beds could see it cancelled.

Laura Murray, 43, believes her daughter faces discrimination because she has repeatedly had operations cancelled at the last minute when there is no hospital space for her special needs.

Blathnaid Ahern, six, has Aicardi Syndrome - a rare, genetic disorder in which all or part of the structure which links two parts of the brain is missing.

The condition means even the most straight forward operation requires her to be in a high dependency unit afterwards.

She has had many operations but often surgery is postponed at the last minute because of a lack of space in HDU.

Blathnaid needs her tonsils and adenoids out to help alleviate breathing problems but she also needs her feeding tube - which she relies on for all medicine, food and drink - changed.

Laura wants both to be done under one general anaesthia. Recently, they were to go ahead but a week before, she was told there was no one available from gastroenterology to perform that part of the operation, so it was cancelled.