Consultant 'shocked' Louth family were told child needed surgery

The case of a north Louth family whose daughter was recommended for invasive hip surgery at Children’s Health Ireland that did not go ahead after the parents sought a second opinion has been raised in the Dáil by Sinn Féin.

The parents of the girl told Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú how they were stunned when a consultant orthopaedic surgeon in the North said that that not only did their daughter not need the surgery, he was shocked that any doctor would have recommended it.

The case was raised in the Dáil on Thursday by Sinn Féin deputy leader Pearse Doherty TD during leaders’ questions which focused on the fallout from the reviews of scoliosis and other surgeries at Children’s Health Ireland hospitals.

Deputy Ó Murchú said the family had contacted him after reading about the Children’s Health Ireland review and outlined how their daughter, who was a patient at the hospital from 2016 when she was 14 months old until she was just past three, had been diagnosed with hip dysplasia.

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The Louth TD said: "The consultant was adamant that surgery, which would have required ‘sawing into her hip bone and reshaping the socket’ was needed. This is despite the fact that the child had not shown any symptoms, and, because of this, the parents sought a second opinion from a specialist in the North in 2019.

"Not only did the consultant say that the child did not need the surgery, she also didn’t have hip dysplasia and the specialist was horrified that that a doctor had made such an error of judgement. This was a situation that spanned from 2016 to early 2019 and the parents have told me that they were under so much stress about the impending surgery that when they were told it was not needed, the relief was incredible."

He said the child is now involved in gymnastics and "that may not have been the case if this surgery had gone ahead". Deputy Ó Murchú said: ‘It would have been extreme torture, and no-one would put their kids through that if it was not necessary. People put their trust in doctors, and, in this case, that has been shattered. There has been abject failure in this case and I suspect that it might be systemic’.

He said that while there were around 560 children being reviewed by an independent expert for the years 2021-2023, "we need to ensure that all the cases are taken into account".