A 2 1/2-year-old Co Limerick child suffering from acute liver failure was recovering after a transplant operation at King's Hospital in London yesterday.
Jean Hurley and her mother, Mrs Lisa Hurley (22), of Daly's Cross, Castleconnell, were flown from Shannon to London on New Year's morning in an Air Corps aircraft.
The Air Corps was called in because there were no commercial flights from Shannon to London from New Year's Eve until the following afternoon. Capt Owen McGrath, the pilot, said it was the third emergency call they had received that morning. They flew into Shannon at 4 a.m. The child had been admitted to the Limerick Regional Hospital on New Year's Eve, where the diagnosis was made by Dr S.M. Basheer, the consultant paediatrician. He said the only hope for the girl's life was to get her to King's Hospital to await a transplant.
The child's grandmother, Mrs Helen Hurley, of Coolreiry, Castleconnell, said they were hoping everything would be all right.
She said Jean became ill only last week. Up to that she was a healthy, lively child.