New phone connection a lifeline for baby Emily

A couple whose baby is in need of a liver transplant and who were dependent on a highly unreliable landline to receive a potentially life-saving call have been given a new connection by their phone company.

Ann-Marie and Seán Byrne, from Knockanore, Co Waterford, spoke publicly last week about their fears that a malfunctioning landline could prevent them getting a call from the UK to say the hospital had a donor match for their seven-month-old daughter Emily.

Emily has biliary atresia, a childhood disease of the liver in which one or more bile ducts are abnormally narrow, blocked, or absent. An attempt to perform a corrective procedure was unsuccessful and she now requires a transplant.

After Ann-Marie spoke out about her fears last week, her phone company, Eir, which had been investigating the landline problem, sent technicians to the Byrne home. They have now been given a new connection.

“I was told that I was on a multisplit line and now they have given me a direct phone line from the Ballycondon exchange,” Ann-Marie said.

While this has solved their problem in the interim, Ann-Marie is concerned that the rest of the parish remains dependent on unreliable landlines. The local school was recently without a phone-line for three days, she said.

“I don’t think it is good enough for a school not to have this security and when it comes to Emily attending school there, it will become an essential need for them to be able to communicate with me if Emily ever gets unwell, as we don’t know what the future holds,” said Ann-Marie.

Eir said: “There are particular challenges for delivering voice services for some residents in Knockanore, which the company is aware of and we work to ensure there is as stable a service as possible.

“The issue is further complicated by the fact that there are challenges in delivering a mobile service in the area.”