The parents of Róisín Ruddle have criticised the State's main paedatric hospital over its treatment of their daughter, who died one day after her heart operation was postponed in July 2003.
In a statement today, Mr Gerard Ruddle and his wife, Mrs Helen Quain-Ruddle, said they had no doubt their daughter would have been given "the chance for life" if the operation at Our Lady's Hospital, Crumlin had gone ahead.
"The chance denied her was, as a consequence, a damnation on us her parents who put our misplaced trust on the health system," they said.
A report into the two-year-old's death, published yesterday, blamed management at the hospital for failing to tackle its shortage of paediatric intensive-care nurses.
Mr and Mrs Ruddle recounted their anguish and confusion as they waited to be given a date for their daughter's operation in the months leading up to June 2003.
They said: "At no time throughout this period was contact initiated by the hospital.
"This was a time of great anxiety and concern for us, the parents of an ailing little girl. While we struggled to get a positive response for a date for her surgery that by now we were keenly aware was a vital link in the progression of her treatment.
"And while we have been given reasons for why this situation existed, we are not at all convinced by them," they said.
Róisín travelled to the Dublin hospital from Limerick 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.
"It is our contention that the four car journeys, undertaken by Róisín and us, her parents, over a period of five days from the 25th to the 30th June, in the prevailing conditions and circumstances, has no parallel anywhere," they said.
However the report found no medical evidence that the trips had been detrimental to her health.
Róisín's parents also criticised the hospital for failing to check and monitor their daughter for trauma and stress generated by the pre-operative period leading up to the operation before she was discharged.
The Ruddles also questioned whether a lack of funding for the hospital was the cause of their daughter's tragic death.
They cited a document from the hospital t o the Eastern Regional Health Authority regarding intensive care nurses in which it stated that it had approached a number of agencies to assist in the matter and it had established some nurses were available if funding was made available.
They asked: "Could it be possible that we lost our child for lack of funding?"
