The parents of a seriously ill baby girl who faces a 10-month wait for a hospital appointment have hit out at the healthcare system.
Little Jeanie May Moylan was born with enlarged kidneys and a heart condition and was rushed from the maternity ward to hospital with sepsis just hours after she was born.
The 11-month-old struggles when passing urine and her distraught parents John Moylan and Paula Penrose say she is in constant pain.
Read More: Long hospital waiting list times 'unacceptable', says HSE chief Paul Reid
Now the couple say they have no choice but to borrow money and go into debt to pay for specialist private medical care after waiting 10 months to be seen.
Dad John, from Co Offaly, spoke of his anguish at seeing his baby daughter “in pain every day”.
He told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “We are very disappointed with the health care service.
“She is in pain going to the toilet for the past 10 months, but we have not received proper care.
“We have been trying to get her into Crumlin hospital and only last week we were told there will be an appointment - in December.
“That’s not good enough, we can’t continue like this, it’s not fair on our daughter, so we will borrow the money.
“We don’t know how much it’ll cost, it could be hundreds, it could be thousands, but it can’t continue.”
John said his daughter was rushed to Crumlin children’s hospital within hours of her delivery at Portlaoise hospital last year.
He said: “She was born and taken away from her mother Paula. A nurse asked a doctor to check for sepsis and yes, she had it.
“She was taken to Crumlin by ambulance, and they wouldn’t take Paula with her in the ambulance.
“They said she might haemorrhage something could happen and they will have to stop the ambulance.
“They said it was too risky. So the baby travelled with no parent to Dublin.”
Baby Jeanie May is currently on antibiotics to keep down the inflammation on her kidneys.
John, who is on disability allowance, said: “She’s just in pain. The antibiotics help with that, but really, she should be in the care of a centre of excellence like Crumlin.
“We cannot seem to get an appointment.
“We have to get this done for her as it’s just awful watching her being unwell.
“We really are hugely disappointed with how she has been let down.”
Children’s Health Ireland at Crumlin paediatric hospital has been contacted for comment.
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