The grieving father of Harvey Morrison Sherratt has said his son received 'really poor' care while a patient with Children’s Health Ireland.
Nine-year-old Harvey died in July, having waited years for the life-saving surgery for scoliosis, though his cause of death has not yet been released.
On The Hard Shoulder, his father, Stephen, said his son was repeatedly failed by the health service.
Stephen Morrison on Harvey Morrison Sherratt
“I would say 60% of his care was really, really poor,” he explained.
“That was across the board; we were never listened to when we had problems, we were ignored on so many different issues.”
Harvey was placed on a waiting list for scoliosis surgery in February 2022 and received his operation last November.
However, in the run up to the surgery, Harvey's health declined further.
"We spent three Christmases in hospital with pneumonia," Mr Morrison recalled.
"Because with that lung, he didn't have the capacity to cough up, so he'd get an infection inside a lung and it was ICU stage."
Mr Morrison added that he had "lost count" of the amount of times he had spent sleeping on the floor of Dublin's Temple Street Hospital.
It took a huge emotional toll of the family.
"There were a few times where I was preparing myself to tell Gillian [Harvey's mother] that this is the worst I've seen him," he recalled.
"And I don't know [if he's going to make it] and you have to mentally prepare yourself for that."
He would then have to think through exactly what he would tell his wife if Harvey did not make it.
Despite the frequency he was in hospital, Mr Morrison strongly believes doctors could have done more for his son.
“There were so many times for intervention to take place and it didn’t happen,” he continued.
“He waited on that scoliosis for 33 months and then he was taken off that list.
“We had certain surgeons tell us he wasn’t strong enough for that surgery - but then we had three other surgeons tell us that he should have that surgery.
“Then he was taken off the list and those questions have never been answered [about why] he was taken off that list.
“That doesn’t make sense to us.”
'Many things that have gone wrong'
Harvey scoliosis was picked up in utero but was only explained to the family when he was two.
In 2017, then Health Minister Simon Harris vowed that no child in Ireland would wait longer than four months for scoliosis surgery.
It was a promise that would not be kept by the Government.
“[In] 2018, we hadn’t really fully engaged with the scoliosis services,” Mr Morrison recalled.
“It was just, ‘This is what it is’ and ‘We need to get him to a particular point that he can have his scoliosis corrected in the best way possible.
“Over that time, there were many things that have gone wrong in the scoliosis services.
“We’re talking about this for a decade almost - it’s been a long time - and there doesn’t seem to be any change in that system.”
In the years after 2018, Harvey’s condition continued to deteriorate.
“There’s information out there that this can’t go beyond a certain point,” Mr Morrison said.
“The international standard is 45 degrees; you don’t let it get over that.
“By the time Harvey got his surgery, he was 130 degrees - anything over 100 is life threatening.”
'This is going to continue to get worse'
In his final months, the young boy's quality of life was “horrendous”.
“The pain he’d go through, putting him on the floor because he was just getting so tired,” Mr Morrison said.
“He had weight reduction; he was losing a shocking amount of weight and he just kept getting pneumonia.”
For the family, it was extremely distressing and they are determined that the system must change.
“We just don’t want to see any other kids go through the same thing,” Mr Morrison said.
“Even this week, we’ve seen one young fella from Galway who is now inoperable.
“This is going to continue to get worse unless Government steps in - and the HSE.
“I genuinely think CHI needs to be taken over by the HSE.”
The HSE has been contacted for comment.
Main image: Harvey Morrison Sherratt. Picture by: RIP.ie.
