Madam, - Kevin Myers (August 6th) raises serious questions about how we as a society treat some of our most vulnerable citizens, those suffering from cerebral palsy.
Recent developments in radiological techniques allow better scanning of the mother and infant during pregnancy. Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine (October 30th, 2003), Nelson reported that stroke is probably the most common cause of hemiparetic cerebral palsy and of some proportion of cases of spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy. Infections in the womb during pregnancy and multiple pregnancies have been shown as further causes.
In Ireland there are about 150 children born with cerebral palsy each year. It is the most common form of chronic motor disability in children. Medical science has yet to develop techniques that will prevent this disability. Nelson suggests that there is little evidence that medical science will ever develop them.
Mr Myers points out the grotesqueness of a parent of a sufferer having to sue the State for assistance in caring for that child. What is even more grotesque is that heretofore only about 15 of those who are born each year with cerebral palsy are in a position to mount a legal challenge. The remaining 135 cannot pursue that avenue. Plaintiffs have lost two cases in recent times and this will undoubtedly reduce the number of court cases in future.
This association has campaigned for some years seeking the introduction of a "no fault" compensation scheme so cerebral palsy sufferers and carers could at least have the comfort of knowing their needs would be cared for. Other countries, less well off than ours, have already done so.
The Department of Health has had a committee examining the issue for some time. It is time to implement a suitable scheme. -Yours, etc.,
DONAL DUFFY,
Assistant Secretary General,
Irish Hospital
Consultants Association,
Dundrum,
Dublin 14.