Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Mother’s agonising wait for news of girl’s MS diagnosis
Family is told it may take a year to see specialist
A MUM told yesterday how she faces an “agonising wait” to find out if her daughter has Multiple Sclerosis.
Kim Flanagan hit out after being told it could take a year for a specialist to confirm her daughter is suffering from the debilitating condition.
Kerri Ann Flanagan, 24, has suffered from mysterious episodes of paralysis and pain for five years and was hospitalised last month after going blind.
Doctors investigating her temporary loss of vision ordered an MRI scan that revealed it was almost certainly MS.
Kim, from Newtownabbey, Co Antrim, said they were at “their wits end” to be told her daughter could wait up to a year before her diagnosis can be confirmed by a neurologist.
She added she was speaking on behalf of her daughter who tries to avoid stress because of her increasingly poor health.
Kim said: “Kerri Ann has been in and out of accident and emergency for years but we never thought of MS, we thought of everything else. Now we have been told MS is most likely to blame.
“We cannot even begin to deal with the diagnosis and the thought of what it is going to be like in the future.
“How can anyone be expected to wait so long for treatment? Kerri Ann’s symptoms are getting worse all the time.
“We have been told there are 10 lesions on her brain and the cover of her nerve cells has worn away.”
Her mum said Kerri Ann had to crawl up the stairs on her hands and knees last week because her legs were so weak.
She fears her daughter’s condition is deteriorating and is concerned “any delay in treatment will lead to further irreplaceable damage”.
Kim added she would have expected the urgent referral system would be “set up to cope” considering Northern Ireland has the highest rate of MS in the UK.
She said: “I have phoned the appointment line twice and been told both times patients urgently referred this time last year are only being seen now.
“The waiting time might be shorter for those who have already been diagnosed but for patients like Kerri Ann waiting for confirmation is agonising. It is hard enough to come to terms with the fact you most likely have MS at just 24, without having to wait so long for treatment or to even see a neurologist.
“It is horrendous. I am not sleeping, I am out of my mind with worry for her.” A spokeswoman for the Belfast Health Trust denied there was a one-year waiting list for urgent referrals to neurology.
She said: “While we are unable to comment on individuals, the current waiting time for an urgent referral to the MS clinic is six months.”