Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Cullinane for moving this motion on unnecessary hip surgeries in children. It is not one or two but, frighteningly, we now understand this could be a routine practice. It is staggering to have to stand here in the Dáil and actually say that, but that is potentially what we are looking at. We are talking about children as young as two years of age being put through invasive surgery - as Deputy Cullinane said, cutting into their hip bones followed by painful recoveries. It is a harrowing experience for any child, or family, to go through, but that is what happened to hundreds of children.

Since my colleagues and I raised this in the Dáil, family after family have been in contact with me. They are all similar phone calls. They are all similar conversations. The families are desperate for answers. These are parents who thought they were doing everything right and that they followed all the medical advice. Now they are left with a fear in the pit of their stomachs that they may have done something wrong. Well, they have not done something wrong. The State has failed them. The system has failed them. They are worried that the pain they watched their children endure was not necessary. One child had what is deemed an unsuccessful hip surgery. That child went from a walker and independence to needing a wheelchair. The child suffers digestive issues from not being able to stand. The challenges now faced by this family are made worse by doubt and not knowing if the surgery was ever justified in the first place. They do not know where to turn because their trust in the medical system, the system they once relied on, has now been shattered. Another family has contacted me about their daughter who suffers aches and pains that did not exist before the hip surgery three years ago. They recently received a vague letter about a further follow-up but nothing about their daughter's specific case. A mother told me about her three-year old having surgery in both hips. She was told that if they did not go for surgery, her daughter would be facing hip replacement surgeries in her 30s. She prays that she made the right choice.

Every single mother and father I spoke to is hoping that their children needed that surgery because the thought of it having been unnecessary is absolutely devastating. They simply cannot understand why they are being left in the dark. The State first and foremost must be open and honest with parents. We need the answers to the questions. We need to know when they will know whether the children's operations were necessary and how many children we are talking about.

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