An MRI scheduled for 2019 for a little girl with a profoundly curved spine has been brought forward to next month after her mother wrote a heartfelt letter in the Irish Examiner, pleading for Health Minister Simon Harris to intervene.

Monica White’s nine year old daughter Olivia can’t walk or talk and has severe spinal curvature. She can’t get on a waiting list until deemed to require surgery — for which she needs an MRI. She’s been offered a date of April 2019. She’s currently in hospital. In today’s Irish Examiner, Monica says her daughter can’t afford to wait.

Substantial delays in diagnosing and treating a child’s severe hearing difficulties resulted in an award to the seven-year-old girl yesterday of €187,500 from the HSE.

A 12-YEAR-OLD with moderate to severe hearing loss in both ears was among 16 children whose impairment was not picked up by a clinician working in audiology services in the Health Service Executive (HSE) South.