Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

Taoiseach, I want to raise an extremely tragic case. On Tuesday, 24 September, Mihai Marandici died of sepsis in Temple Street Children’s University Hospital after being transferred by ambulance from Tallaght University Hospital. He was seven months old. His devastated parents, Nicolae and Olesea are looking for answers. Their solicitor contacted me this morning on their behalf.

At 6 o’clock on the Sunday, they brought their baby into Tallaght Hospital with a high fever and six hours later they were told he was fine so they took him home. By 3 o’clock on Monday they were back with a GP’s letter saying he needed to be treated urgently. More tests were performed but no medication other than Calpol or Nurofen were given until around midnight, nine hours later, when he was finally given antibiotics. Mihai then began to develop red spots on his body. His parents repeatedly rang for assistance but nobody came. At 5 a.m. on Tuesday he was transferred to Temple Street hospital where he died a few hours later. The family were told he had meningitis.

His Dad said:

He was so awesome. He was a bright and beautiful boy. What happened to him? We need to know. Could he have been saved?

The family needs to know and we need to know. Would the Taoiseach agree that there needs to be an independent investigation into this?

See this speech in context