The mother of Harvey Morrison Sherratt fears that other children have been taken off the waiting list for scoliosis surgery and mistakenly labelled as in need of palliative care. 

Nine year old Harvey died in August this year, having waited years for scoliosis surgery. 

Although his cause of death has not yet been made public, the family described the quality of care he received as “poor”. 

On The Pat Kenny Show, Harvey’s mother, Gillian Sherratt, said he waited 33 months for scoliosis surgery that he desperately needed. 

 “In that time, his curve went from 75 degrees to 130 degrees,” she explained. 

“He was regularly in and out of hospital with pneumonia; he was removed from the CHI urgent scoliosis waiting list and, to this day, we still haven’t been given any sort of indication from Children’s Health Ireland into who made that decision, why and when.” 

Ms Sherratt continued that the family is hopeful that an investigation might soon be able to uncover those facts. 

“A whistleblower came forward and brought a protected disclosure to the Protected Disclosures’ Commission,” she said. 

“Allegedly someone or someones within Children’s Health Ireland had wrongly labelled Harvey as palliative.” 

Harvey Morrison Sherratt.

A patient is given palliative care in order to try and ease their pain and suffering. 

However, in Harvey’s case, the priority should have been surgery. 

“Typically in that instance, a child would be linked to a palliative care team and be on things like prescription pain relief,” she said. 

“Harvey had none of that; it’s nowhere in his medical records that he was palliative. 

“He was on no prescription pain relief - which would be the very least you’d do when a child has a degenerative condition, such as scoliosis, that does cause a lot of pain.

“There was none of that, which is why I’m of the opinion that this wasn’t something that was ever officially done.” 

Stephen Morrison's son Harvey. Picture by: Stephen Morrison.

Ms Sherratt continued that her “big concern” is that other children might be also impacted but their families have no idea. 

“If it could be done to Harvey, who is to say that it hasn’t happened to other children?” she said. 

“I’m hoping the Protected Disclosure Commission comes to the end of their investigation quickly, so that they can go looking through these children’s records. 

“They won’t show up on the spinal list; it’s a big concern for anyone that might have been wrongly labelled palliative.

“Hopefully, they’re still here and there’s time to address it before it’s too late for them.” 

Statutory inquiry

Yesterday, Tánaiste Simon Harris and Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill told families and advocacy groups that they would recommend to Cabinet that there should be a statutory inquiry into the care of children with scoliosis and spina bifida.

Ms Sherratt said that ahead of the meeting, everyone had agreed that they “wouldn’t accept anything less than what they’ve agreed to”. 

“We were able to breathe a little sigh of relief when they said they’d be making that recommendation,” she said. 

“Until we get the nod next week, we’ll kind of be waiting for that.” 

While the timescale has not been agreed, Ms Sherratt said it would be a “huge undertaking” with the inquiry potentially examining medical records dating back decades. 

“We’re looking at hundreds, if not thousands of children,” she said. 

“Multiple hospital sites, multiple departments. So, it’s a very undertaking and not one that I think could be done quickly. 

“I think doing it and pushing for it to be done quickly would be doing it a disservice.” 

Reflecting on her son’s life, Ms Sherratt said it all feels “incredibly unjust” that so much of it was spent waiting for surgery that would have “alleviated a great deal of pain”. 

“I don’t want other families to face what we’ve had to face,” she said.

Main image: Harvey Morrison. Image: Stephen Morrison