My daughter is in so much pain, I fear she will need a knee op
A MOTHER OF SIX has said she fears for her daughter who has struggled with chronic pain for almost two years without a diagnosis.
Antoinette Burke, from Blessington, Co. Wicklow, told the Irish Mail on Sunday that 15-yearold Gearóidín has been waiting 18 months to see a specialist in Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin, to help diagnose the issue with her knee, which is likely to be rheumatoid arthritis.
They have yet to hear news of a future appointment date.
Like many parents, Ms Burke faces a dilemma in choosing whether to go private or not.
She said she considered paying for her daughter’s diagnosis privately but was advised that if she did so, all treatments required thereafter would also have to be paid for privately or she would risk going to the bottom of the public waiting list again.
It’s simply not financially feasible for her family to consider treatment privately.
‘I don’t have private medical insurance so I have to wait to be seen. That’s where the frustration comes in,’ Ms Burke told the MoS.
‘Once you get in there, the services are fantastic but with the waiting, it feels like we’re in a third world country.’
Ms Burke’s younger daughter, Francis, 10, was diagnosed with arthritis when she was seven. She had to wait two-and-a-half years to be seen by a paediatric rheumatologist in Crumlin, by which time the arthritis severely affected her hand. She now has to use a computer in class as she can’t use a pencil to write.
Francis’s condition of polyarthritis is much more severe than Gearóidín’s, as 52 of her joints are affected. But with diagnosis and treatment, her other joints aren’t as damaged as her hand. This has left the Burke family painfully aware of how vital early intervention is.
Ms Burke is concerned that if her older daughter is not diagnosed soon she may require a knee replacement in her 20s.
‘It’s frustrating because we can’t do anything for her apart from give her pain medication and hotcold treatments when it swells up,’ she said.
Gearóidín’s knee can lock for an hour-and-a-half when she’s active or feeling stressed, and she has to lie down and take pain medication. She no longer plays sports due to her fear that she’ll have a flare-up.
Antoinette, 50, a stay-at-home mother, and her husband John Sr, 53, a taxi driver, have their hands full caring for Gearóidín, 15, and Francis, 10. They have four grown up children: Lauren, 31, John, 29, Jordan, 28, Jessica, 26,
Antoinette said of Gearóidín: ‘She loved playing GAA but can’t because it would be aggravated and she’d be limping.
‘If you don’t get an early diagnosis there can be damage because when something goes undiagnosed the inflammation can eat away at the bone that can never be repaired.
‘When you don’t have the services, the damage is done and the longer they’re waiting. It’s like the children waiting for scoliosis treatment.’
There are now 437 children waiting more than 18 months for rheumatology appointments in Crumlin, according to National Treatment Purchase Fund figures. They are among 966 children waiting in total, from a month up to over 18 months.