Mother claims health cuts will jeopardise her son’s life

HEALTH service chiefs have been urged to cancel plans to make cuts of €9 million in wards and theatres at a major children’s hospital by a woman whose son is almost entirely dependent on the facility.

Speaking ahead of today’s noon protest in support of Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, 35-year-old Aisling McNiffe, from Straffan in Co Kildare, explained that without the expert care currently available her son Jack’s life would be in serious jeopardy.

The four-year-old, who sees Crumlin as “his second home,” has Down syndrome, cardiac defects, chronic lung disease, and the rare Cinca syndrome, which means he is likely to be at risk of arthritis, blindness, and a host of other conditions should he survive childhood.