‘Do you want my baby to die?’ dad pleads to council over damp living conditions

A desperate father whose family is living in emergency accommodation in Navan, Co Meath, has begged his local authority: “Do you want my baby to die before you do something to help us?”

Tom Stokes and his wife Bridget are pleading for help after their 15-week-old daughter had been rushed to hospital on two occasions since last December, suffering with pneumonia due to the damp living conditions they find themselves in.

And, despite receiving letters from social services and a doctor in Temple Street Children’s Hospital outlining the seriousness of the baby’s health, Meath County Council has not yet rehoused them.

The mother spent the final weeks of her pregnancy, last November, living in the family car as a rent increase on the property the family had been living in forced them to move out.

Her husband said: “Myself, Bridget and our two-year-old son Thomas were in the car for a few weeks before our daughter Mya was born. But when she came home from hospital, that arrangement wasn’t feasible so we moved in with friends.

“People were very good to us but, as it was coming up to Christmas, we felt we were imposing. In early December, we presented ourselves to the council as homeless.

“In fairness to them, they immediately placed us in emergency accommodation but it is not fit for purpose.

“Four of us are in one room. The electric has regularly been turned off so we can’t use the fridge or the microwave.

“There is mould on the walls, the electric wiring in the room has been left bare and exposed.

“We have to keep a bowl underneath the toilet as it is leaking all the time and, as we are not allowed have a heater in the place, the room is absolutely freezing cold.

“As a result of this, we had to take our baby into the Lourdes hospital in Drogheda at three weeks old, and the child was diagnosed with bronchitis and pneumonia. When our baby came home it was back in the same conditions and had a relapse.

“This time we took the child to Temple Street Children’s Hospital where we discovered the pneumonia had returned.”

At that stage, the couple themselves requested to meet a social worker and there has been correspondence between the social worker and Meath County Council in which the social worker advised: “It has come to my attention their current housing circumstances may be exacerbating the baby’s condition at present.

“The child is receiving treatment for pneumonia and is acutely unwell. I would appreciate if you could consider urgent review of their current accommodation and arrange alternative, more suitable accommodation to ensure full recovery of their child’s health.”

The letter was sent on January 21 and, six weeks later, the family remain in the same sub-standard accommodation.

Another letter forwarded to the council from a doctor in Temple Street Children’s Hospital stated: “Mya is being treated for pneumonia and to avoid further infection she needs suitable warm and dry living conditions.’

Mr Stokes said: “Like any couple, our children are precious to us, but we don’t have a proper home for them. We haven’t even proper cooking or sterilisation facilities and the council appear unwilling to help; in this day and age that’s disgraceful.

“Mya could very easily die because of all this. We have all been ill with chest infections due to the dampness. Do the council want my baby to die on me before they do something?”

Meath County Council, meanwhile, said it did not comment on individual cases.