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.