BREAKING: Seven-year-old boy coming home for palliative care

The seven-year-old  boy whose situation was raised in the Dáil yesterday is to receive palliative care at home. 

Danny’s family, who live in Glasha located between Ballymacarbry and Clonmel, wrote a letter to TD Michael Lowry, who read it aloud onto the Dáil record this week.

Today, Deputy Lowry confirmed that the HSE has put in place a home care package for Danny.

In a statement today, Deputy Lowry said:

“The HSE has agreed to put in place a full Home Care Package suitable to Danny’s specific medical condition. The basis of this requires Clinical Governance and full-time care by nurses with very specialised skill sets.

A Consultant led Palliative Home Care team will oversee Danny’s care, with an expert team of qualified nurses being redeployed.

This will enable this young boy to come home to be with his parents, Lisa and Lar, and his siblings, Charlie (11) and Shay (9), his immediate family and their large circle of supportive friends.

This is something that Danny has been longing to do.”

Dáil Record

Yesterday, Mr Lowry asked the Minister for State Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Malcolm Noonan, to intervene.

Danny has an aggressive type of cancer for which he is in stage four.

However, Community Paediatric Palliative Care services were withdrawn from his area in 2017.

As a result, Danny’s parents were informed he would remain under the care of the palliative care team in Crumlin.

The letter read aloud by Deputy Lowry in the Dáil yesterday said:

"To date, we have done everything in our power to ensure that our son’s care is home based. 

“To be clear we want and expect our son to be afforded the opportunity to die at home, to have the same access to community-based palliative care services that he would have if he was an adult in their area, or, indeed, was a child in most other community areas in the country.

"It is unacceptable that our son may have fewer choices with regard to end-of-life care due to geographical, political, financial or resource issues. Unfortunately, time is not on our side. As such, they need a response to be actioned urgently.”