Op success after donor’s intervention

SURGEONS in Britain successfully completed two operations on a Cork schoolgirl whose mother criticised the health service for failing to arrange surgery to straighten her daughter’s severely twisted spine.

The HSE had refused to foot the €100,000 bill for an operation in Britain on 12-year-old Ann-Marie Kelleher of Killavullen, north Cork, who suffers from scoliosis. Ann-Marie’s mother Bernie accused the HSE of treating her daughter in an inhumane fashion.

After an anonymous donor offered to meet the costs, the HSE reversed its decision and paid for the youngster’s medical costs.