A doting mum has blasted the HSE for failing her daughter as she prays for a miracle to save her tiny tot.
Little Hania Ahmad was born with a rare heart condition and will have a limited life if she does not get a lifesaving operation – which is not available in Ireland.
Mum Ainee, who lives in Saggart, south Dublin, is begging the government to help fund the surgery abroad to keep her little girl alive.
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Hania was born with a congenital heart defect called Pulmonary Atresia with a ventricular septal defect (VSD) and major aortopulmonary collateral arteries (MAPCAs).
Ainee, 38, told The Sunday Mirror: "I’m infuriated.
"Hania’s time is running out and the Irish government and the HSE are not helping.
"I’m begging them to help. This is life or death for our little girl.
"We are from Pakistan but Hania is an Irish baby. She was born here. Yes, I am angry.
"We feel helpless but there is always hope, we need a miracle."
Ainee told how she struggled to conceive her son for eight years and tried for six years after that to fall pregnant again.
She said her "world came crashing down" when Hania was born prematurely with a complex congenital heart defect, weighing just 1.8kg.
She said: "I remember looking at her and noticing a blue tinge on her skin. At just three months old Hania underwent her first open heart surgery."
After one surgery was unsuccessful, doctors at Crumlin Cardiac Centre for Children said it was too dangerous to operate again without a specialist.
When the Irish team said they could do no more the family reached out to specialist surgeons in the UK and US, but the cost could run into millions.
Ainee continued: "I panic. Her skin is dusky blue all the time.
"If she walks a few steps she coughs and goes blue. When Hania gets tired all she wants is mammy.
"Sometimes she coughs so much she will start crying and saying ‘Mommy Mommy’.
"She wants to come to me because she’s in so much pain from coughing.
"She just wants to crawl up on my knee."
Ainee added: "I haven’t slept in two years.
"The whole night I look at Hania because she has a tube and sometimes it wraps around her neck.
"When she is sick she vomits so hard, when she gags the tube comes out.
"When I put it back in her nose, it’s scary and she cries and says ‘mummy, no tube’."
Dad Aziz, 46, who works as an accountant, said: "When the Irish team could do no more she was referred to Stanford in the US. The cost is unbearable."
The family has set up a GoFundMe in a bid to raise the €1.7m needed for the surgery abroad.
A HSE spokesperson told The Irish Sunday Mirror: "Our thoughts are with this family at such a difficult time for them.
"We cannot, however, comment on individual cases.
"The patient’s clinical team can speak to the family directly to explore all treatment options available."
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