An investigation into the death of two-year-old Róisín Ruddle by the Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA) wrongly stated that her family had been given an alternative date for her operation the day her heart surgery was postponed.
The ERHA, which investigated her death prior to an independent review panel being set up, produced a report that was published yesterday alongside the independent report.
The ERHA's report was reviewed by the independent panel and it found that the claim that Mrs Helen Quain-Ruddle, the child's mother, was told the surgery had been reorganised for Monday, July 7th, 2003, was "inaccurate".
The operation was postponed on June 30th, 2003, and Róisín travelled home to Limerick that day. She was pronounced dead at her home at 1.45 a.m. the next day. A post-mortem found that her death was due to acute cardio/respiratory failure associated with the presumed development of a cardio-arrhythmia.
The independent group's report set out to answer questions raised by the Ruddle family, which were not addressed in the ERHA report. It noted that heart operations are performed at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children every Monday and Wednesday, but children must travel to the hospital to be assessed a few days beforehand. Róisín travelled to the hospital on Wednesday, June 25th, was assessed, went home, and returned on Sunday, June 29th. Her parents were anxious to know if this travelling had contributed to her death.
The panel said while there was no medical evidence that the trips had been detrimental to her health, it believed frequent long journeys were "not ideal for patients with heart conditions". It recommended that the hospital "consider ways to avoid the necessity of such patients and their families having to undertake two journeys in quick succession, particularly where the distance to be travelled is significant. If it is necessary to carry out operations on a Monday, facilities should be available to carry out the necessary pre-operative procedures in the hospital at weekends".
Minister for Health Ms Harney said she hoped this recommendation would be acted on quickly.
Meanwhile, despite suggestions that intensive care beds might have been used in other children's hospitals to free up beds in Crumlin to allow Róisín's operation proceed, the report found: "No other patient was fit to be transferred out of the unit, either on to a ward within the hospital or to an ICU in another hospital."
The report found that Róisín had been treated appropriately by Crumlin over her life. Furthermore, it said seven other cardiac operations on children had to be postponed in 2003 due to a shortage of intensive care nurses.