Ruddle statement - A painful insight into health crisis

COMING in the wake of the scathingly critical report into the untimely death of two-year-old Róisín Ruddle, whose lifesaving operation was postponed, today’s heart-rending statement from her parents should be made required reading at every hospital in the country.

Besides addressing fundamental questions that need to be asked in the interests of all ‘heart children’ and their parents, the Ruddles raise broader issues about the health service which are of profound importance.

Redolent of pain, the statement by Gerard Ruddle and Helen Quain-Ruddle chronicles a long litany of failings by a system which, they believe, contributed to their child’s death.