A FERMOY mother has called for the establishment of a treatment centre for scoliosis in Cork, following 13 years of regular travel to Dublin for care for her now teenage daughter.
Aisling Creed who has EDS and scoliosis with her parents Jacqui and Bosco Creed and uncle Michéal Creed are fundraising for the Straightahead charity
Picture: Eddie O’Hare
Jacqui Creed, whose daughter Aisling was diagnosed with scoliosis at the age of just six months, says the teen’s treatment has been “a continuous struggle” over the years due to the fact that the surgeries she requires are only carried out in Dublin.
Aisling was diagnosed following investigations into what appeared to be a growth on her back. Since then, her treatment has included 60 hard body casts, changed at 12-week intervals, until growth rods were surgically inserted in 2010.
These rods, which help straighten the spine, have to be lengthened every six months, a procedure which involves a general anaesthetic.
Now that she is getting older, a spinal fusion is necessary, but due to consistent delays, she has been waiting nore than 15 months for the surgery.
“She’s a fighter, a warrior,” Mrs Creed says.
“She has had a rough ride but the choice isn’t there for her to do it any other way.”
The regular pain is something that Aisling has been forced to become used to, but when something becomes particularly aggravated, the family are faced with making the decision to attempt to cope at home, or drive to Dublin.
“She was born with it so she is used to a level of pain but when something goes wrong you see her face turn shades of grey.”
“She has 14 metal screws in her back at the moment and loops of metal wire so it can be a case that something is pressing on a nerve or a bone and you have to try and describe that over the phone to Crumlin.”
Aisling receives outpatient treatment in Dublin, meaning that she is back on the road home in the same day she undergoes surgery. For the hundreds of patients living in Munster, this is the norm.
“We are the lucky ones because the journey is only two and a half hours for us on the motorway now but there are patients coming from the depths of west Cork and Kerry,” Mrs Creed states. “It is criminal that there is nothing closer for people.”
For others awaiting treatment in the first place, waiting lists mean that problems which could be minimised by early intervention are exacerbated.
“Parents all over Munster are drained from trying to get on waiting lists. It is not getting better, it is only getting worse.”
Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital has only one full-time consultant orthopaedic surgeon, Cork-born Pat Kiely.
Mr Kiely, who co-founded Straight Ahead, a charity which helps reduce waiting lists by carrying out orthopaedic surgeries during quieter times at Our Lady’s, says a national system or strategy for resourcing is lacking both in HSE and private sectors.
“In the middle of all this are the unfortunate patients and their doctors — trained and willing to provide treatment but not given enough support or capacity to provide care,” says Mr Kiely.
He argues that delays in treatment cost the state more in the long term as patients continue to deteriorate without the appropriate interventions.
According to figures sourced by the Scoliosis Awareness and Support Ireland group there are currently 218 children waiting for spinal surgery at Our Lady’s, 19 of whom have been on the list for more than 15 months.
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