A prayer service will be held in Cork this afternoon for a baby who died of whooping cough last week following a two-month battle to save her life in a British hospital.
Kerry Ann O'Riordan from Little Island, Cork, was airlifted in an RAF Hercules aircraft from Cork airport on November 25th to Glenfield hospital in Leicester in order to undergo emergency treatment for whooping cough.
The eight-week-old baby was admitted to the Bon Secours hospital in Cork after she developed a cough. She was transferred to Cork University Hospital where she was placed on a ventilator after her condition worsened. When her lungs stopped functioning, doctors were forced to secure a place for her at Leicester General Hospital as the treatment needed is not available in Ireland.
Kerry Ann's parents, Tim O'Riordan and Una Harrington, remained at her bedside throughout her illness but she died last Wednesday. The prayer service will take place at the Sacred Heart church in Glounthaune, at 2pm today, and the burial will be private.
The family has asked that donations be sent to the Heart Link charity in Britain, in their daughter's memory, in lieu of flowers.