‘Scoliosis is crushing all of Noah’s organs’
Six-year-old boy’s mother pleads for urgent action
CHILDREN will continue to suffer needlessly unless the Minister for Health takes urgent action to address waiting lists for scoliosis surgery, a six-yearold boy’s mother has said.
In the past six months, Noah Quish has endured six brain surgeries and survived meningitis.
However, his parents Una and John-Joe Quish fear it is the curve on their son’s spine, which is slowly crushing his internal organs, that could kill him.
Noah, from Monaleen, Co. Limerick, was born with several conditions, but scoliosis (curve in his spine) is threatening his life.
His mother Una’s message to the Government, the Minister for Health, and Children’s Health Ireland, which runs both Temple Street and Crumlin hospitals, is simply that if they don’t tackle the waiting list, children like Noah will continue to suffer.
‘They all need to focus on the waiting lists,’ she stated. ‘Children are ending up with life-long problems because of it, like Noah. If he was never waiting for a cast for his spine he wouldn’t be in this situation.
‘The waiting list keeps these children suffering. They are waiting way too long and ending up with other health issues. Noah has lung problems now associated
Failed to deliver on that target
with scoliosis. It is a disaster and we are caught in the middle. One of his legs is shorter than the other, his knees are all swollen, and he has become breathless.’
Speaking in the Dáil this week, former Minister for Health Simon Harris said a target had been set in 2017 that no child would be waiting longer than four months for scoliosis surgery.
However, he was told that he had failed to deliver on that target.
Mr Harris, now Higher Education Minister, said there was ‘very, very significant progress’ on reducing waiting times because of that commitment.
He said the number of children waiting longer than four months fell to 29 by the end of 2017.
However, he said that ‘progress was reversed’ during the pandemic with the closure of theatres and reduction of health services.
The minister said the Government has committed to establishing a task force on the matter.
Meanwhile, Ms Quish said her son is vomiting every day because of the pressure on his stomach.
‘He can’t sleep in his bed now. He is sleeping on the floor. He can’t get comfortable on the bed.’
Noah is one of hundreds of children on long waiting lists for s c o l i o s i s s u r g e r y, w h i c h t h e Government has admitted it has failed to properly tackle.
When Noah was two years old, he was deemed an ‘urgent case’ to be fitted with a cast to straighten his spine. However, it took 10 months for the cast to be fitted.
In the past year-and-a-half, Noah’s scoliosis has worsened by nearly 80 degrees, from 26 to 100 degrees, and is making it hard for him to breathe, Una said.
Last July he had brain surgery for an unrelated condition, but he contracted meningitis while in Temple Street Children’s Hospital and ended up having five more surgeries.
His scoliosis surgery has been cancelled numerous times because he was too unwell. However, in another cruel twist, Noah is now considered well enough for his scoliosis operation but has no confirmed date for it.
His last visit with his consultant surgeon at Crumlin Children’s Hospital was last November, but because the surgeon is currently on leave, Noah is ‘in limbo’ regarding his scoliosis surgery.
‘The first brain surgery was at the end of July and he ended up getting severe hydrocephalus, so he got fluid on the brain, and because he had so much fluid on the brain he ended up with a shunt (to drain the fluid) and then the shunt, he caught meningitis from that, so it ended up being six brain surgeries altogether because everything went wrong,’ Ms Quish said.
‘When it [the shunt] went in, some infection went in at the same time, so he got meningitis, so the shunt had to be taken out and a drain had to be put in his head, and then when he was better again they had to put a shunt back in, so it was all a bit of a disaster,’ she added.
‘Noah is great. He does cope. It’s not like him to complain, but the fact that he is complaining about his spine since before Christmas, I know it needs to be done now.’
‘Noah is after having a growth spurt, and the more you grow the more twisted it [the spine] gets. It keeps rotating and curving and that’s why he is in trouble.’
Despite it all, Noah does his very best to attend St Clare’s School in Ennis, Co. Clare, for children with special needs. ‘He loves St Clare’s school. It has been fantastic for Noah,’ his mother said.
Children’s Health Ireland did not respond when asked for comment.
‘Six brain surgeries altogether’