A fifteen-year-old boy from Celbridge, Co Kildare who was “lost in the system” has been waiting three years to have crucial surgery to enable him to walk safely.
Evan Gardiner has, among other foot complications, floating kneecaps that cause the teenager to fall regularly, resulting in severe injuries.
“His ankles roll in, his feet are not flat, one problem carries [into] another,” his mother, Elaine Gardiner, told The Irish Times. “This causes his feet to give way, he doesn’t know himself it’s going to. He gets tired more easily too,” Mrs Gardiner added. Both she and her husband, Vincent Gardiner, were also told that Evan’s right knee was knocking off his other knee.
Evan is, according to his parents, very independent and active: “He likes to be on the move, he’ll give everything a go,” said Ms Gardiner of her son, who also has Down syndrome and attends St Raphael’s Special School in Celbridge.
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However, for the last three years the Gardiners have been trying to ensure that Evan has the first of five operations that they were told in September 2022 were “imperative” to prevent their son becoming dependent on a wheelchair.
The Gardiners were told then their son would need to have his two kneecaps reattached so that he could not move them from side to side. Following this, his two ankles would have to be operated on. After these operations, his right hip would need attention, they were told.
On Thursday, Evan will attend Crumlin children’s hospital, where he has been a patient since birth.
“He’s going in for an echo [cardiogram], he was born with a hole in his heart. It has closed a lot, [but] the anaesthetist wants to get it checked,” said Mrs Gardiner.
Evan is due to have surgery on Friday if he gets the all clear on Thursday.
While both of Evan’s parents are hopeful that the surgery will proceed, they remain very frustrated that it has taken this long to come about and that they and their son have had to endure a series of rescheduled appointments in the process. “We’ve been sent from Billy to Jack,” said Ms Gardiner.
On one occasion the Gardiners were told that their son “was lost in the system” and on another that he “seems to have fallen through the cracks”, both of which particularly frustrated them.
“We’re very private people,” said Ms Gardiner. “We’ve been fighting so long,” added her husband, who praised local Fianna Fáil TD Naoise Ó Cearúil, who had raised Evan’s plight in the Dáil last week.
The Gardiners also feel that no one has taken responsibility for the delay in Evan being operated on. “We have received no formal apology, Evan is suffering in the long run, his life is on hold,” said Ms Gardiner.
The Gardiners are also conscious that there are “lots of families” awaiting paediatric surgery for a loved one.
An added frustration for the Gardiners is that they estimate that if Evan’s surgery had gone ahead three years ago, all his surgeries would be completed by now. “He’d be back at swimming,” Ms Gardiner said.
Initially the Gardiners were told that insoles would be a solution to their son’s foot problems. “However, by the time Evan was measured for the insoles, then there was the grant – and we were told that this [the insoles] would be a quick fix – but by the time the insoles arrived he’d outgrown them,” said Ms Gardiner.
Children’s Health Ireland did not respond immediately to a request for comment regarding the Gardiners’ criticism over the surgery delay.
