Child with scoliosis to wait 8 months for MRI at Waterford hospital
Little Hannah was diagnosed with scoliosis.
A five-year-old girl diagnosed with scoliosis will have to wait between 8 to 12 months for an MRI scan.
Little Hannah, who lives in Kilkenny with her family, was referred by her GP to University Hospital Waterford (UHW). Her mother Carolann Walsh has been left devastated by the news that her daughter will have to wait so long for a scan.
Carolann (32) was also diagnosed with the same condition as a small child, and knows first-hand what her daughter is going through, both mentally and physically. Hannah suffers daily from recurring headaches and migraines.
"I am terrified for her future," said Carolann. "I’ve lived this. I know what untreated scoliosis can do. I’ve already got one child with generalized epilepsy, another with sensory issues and now my middle child is facing what I went through.
"How can it be that nothing has changed after all these years?"
Carolann was diagnosed with the same condition as an infant and wore a back brace for many years. By the time she was 14, doctors saw an improvement and removed the back brace for a year. However, within months her health deteriorated and her back curved to an 80-degree angle, pushing on her lungs and impacting her breathing.
In 2008, Carolann's own experience with accessing vital care for scoliosis made national headlines. Her operation for spinal fusion was cancelled due to cutbacks and ward closures in Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Crumlin.
This terrible ordeal led to Carolann and her mother taking to the media to highlight the delay in her treatment. Carolann finally received her surgery in September 2009, after an 18-month-long wait.
She said: "It took media attention and a huge public outcry before I finally got my surgery date. That was September 2009 and it changed my life.
"But now, 16 years later, I’m fighting the exact same fight — this time for my own child.”
Speaking with the Waterford News & Star, Carolann said that after being diagnosed at age two, her own MRI scan took place three weeks after diagnosis.
She is extremely concerned, not just for her own daughter but for every child waiting on vital care and assessment.
She said: "No child should have to wait in pain. No parent should have to beg the system for care. If the health service could find a way in 2009, it can find a way now.
‘We need the MRI – that will tell us how her scoliosis is really impacting her internally, what her spine is hitting off. We can’t do much more for her without one. We need to know how she is being affected, if her lungs are being crushed like mine were, how is her brain being impacted," Carolann said.
HSE South East were reached for comment.
A Senior Press Officer sent the following response: "Whilst University Hospital Waterford (UHW) endeavours to see all those who need access to diagnostic care, such as MRIs and x-rays in a timely manner, we are confined within the constraints of our current service levels.
"All service users are triaged according to clinical need. If a patient is triaged as routine, but their symptoms worsen or they are feeling unwell and are concerned, we would recommend that they contact their GP, who may request that the case be reviewed and triaged as more urgent."
