Girl with anorexia writes to High Court President asking to visit home as she is 'missing Ireland terribly'

By Ann O'Loughlin

A teenage girl with severe anorexia who is still being tube-fed 10 months after being moved to a specialist eating disorder unit in the UK has written directly to the President of the High Court appealing to be let return home to Ireland for a visit.

The girl is among several young Irish people being treated in the UK due to the absence of any specialist facility here for treating severe anorexia.

Mr Justice Peter Kelly said today he was sympathetic to her home visit request, but the medical evidence was her situation is so serious a home visit at this point involved a real risk of relapse. He would review her request again coming up to Christmas, he stressed.

Earlier, Peter Finlay SC, for the HSE, said the girl's life was in danger at one point and, while there had been some improvement, the medical reports stated a home visit involved a high risk of relapse.

The 17-year-old girl was made a ward of court after it was found, due to anorexia, she lacked capacity to make decisions in the best interests of her health and welfare.

Patricia Hickey, general solicitor for wards of court, was appointed to represent her interests and, in a report to the court, said she visited the girl last month and considered that, while she has improved, she remains "far from being well".

David Leahy BL said the girl's court appointed guardian considered a visit home not in her best interests at this stage.

Mr Justice Kelly said, on admission to the UK unit last January, the girl weighed 35kg with a Body Mass Index of 13.67 and sought to manipulate her weight by putting objects in her clothes. She had been diagnosed with severe anorexia and obsessive compulsive disorder.

Her condition has improved in that she now weighs 43kg with a BMI of 16.69 but she is still fed by nasogastric tube to ensure she gets nutrition.

She had written directly to him last month thanking him for his help and support, saying she has come a long way and is working hard to improve her condition, but wanted home visits as she is "missing Ireland terribly" and needed something "to motivate me".

He said he would be the first to allow her home visits if satisfied from medical evidence that it would benefit her, but the evidence stated a discharge now carried a high likelihood of relapse of her physical and psychiatric state and, while she has made progress, she remains in a "fragile mental state" with little insight into the serious nature of her illness.

He would list the case in December when, if evidence suggested she can tolerate a visit home over Christmas, he would be sympathetic. Her voice had and would be heard and she should continue to have hope and to see a visit as a realistic prospect, he stressed.

In a second case also involving a severely anorexic girl, the judge made orders for her transfer from one UK eating disorders unit to another.

He noted the girl has made substantial progress and her weight has risen from 39kg to 54.6kg while her BMI had risen from 15.52 to 20.91, but reports made clear there was "a lot more to her difficulties than anorexia" and she continues to suffer a high level of anxiety.