'The health system is imploding… My daughter with a severe disability spent 25 hours in A&E'

A 13-year-old severely disabled girl and her family endured a 25-hour ordeal in the crowded A&E of Crumlin Hospital, during which time she was found to have a broken leg.

Sophia Daly, from Dublin, who suffers from cerebral palsy and other complications, was taken to the hospital by her concerned mother Joan at 7pm on Friday.

After being triaged she was returned to the packed waiting room, her father Aaron said.

“I went to the hospital at 11.45pm and at that stage a doctor still had not seen her. She was sent for an X-ray at 12.30am and then placed in a an overflow room where she was near another patient,” he added.

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“The hospital could not get a bed to fit her. At 6am she had another X-ray. The plaster room was also being used as a small clinic where other children were brought for plastering.

“We were told around 3pm that another child nearby had the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and we were very concerned because Sophia has a lowered immune system.”

Sophia is a long-term patient of the hospital and her family had a 19-month battle – even protesting outside the Dáil – before she received spinal surgery in 2018 .

She eventually got a bed at 8pm on Saturday. “The staff were brilliant, but when we were told we could leave we took it with both hands and left. The health system seems to be imploding,” said Mr Daly.

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