Waiting times will just keep growing now
MEGAN’S OP IS IN TWO WEEKS
THE mother of a young girl with scoliosis is hopeful her surgery will go ahead this month – after waiting for two years.
Megan Halvey-Ryan, who featured in an RTÉ exposé last month, is due to have an operation on a double curvature of her spine in Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital on March 23. The 13-year-old, from Limerick, and her mother recently travelled to Crumlin for an assessment with her specialist.
As well as her scoliosis, she is also having stomach problems and her mother said she is concerned as Megan has lost weight.
Megan, who featured on the RTÉ Investigates: Living On The List programme, is in constant pain and has missed a lot of school.
The condition is making her so ill that it’s causing her to eat very little.
Her mother Sharon said: ‘She was diagnosed in December 2014 and her referral was June 2015. She needs to get a bigger operation now. ‘We were hoping that it would just be her top curve that would be straightened but because she has a double curve, the lower curve is after increasing. She now needs a full fusion. She needs both curves straightened, in comparison to one curve, which is what we were hoping.’ ‘She’ll have to get a bit of physiotherapy afterwards but it definitely is a bigger operation that she needs now,’ said Sharon. A shocking RTÉ Investigates programme, broadcast last month, revealed the existence of two previously unpublished waiting lists showing tens of thousands of patients in need of operations or medical procedures. In February’s show, the RTÉ Investigates team followed a number of patients who had been waiting months – and, in some cases, years – for an appointment, including Megan. Sharon said: ‘They need to rectify the situation in Crumlin more so than anything else. It’s going to take a lot to sort it out.’