A 4-year-old girl with cancer has been promised a HSE package to provide end-of-life care in her home.
Fiadh O'Connor's family were previously told that palliative care at home was not available to them because of their location in the South East.
After publically "begging" for the service, Fiadh's parents have confirmed via their Facebook page that she will return home.
According to the post, following their plea, the HSE called to promise an end-of-life care package to Fiadh.
Parents Laura and Rory O'Connor from The Ballagh in County Wexford made a public appeal to allow their daughter the right to die at home on Friday.
"We did not want to go public with Fiadh’s condition but we have been forced to in order to allow her the right to die at home surrounded by her family," they said.
In 2019, Fiadh was diagnosed with an aggressive and rare type of cancer called neuroblastoma.
Earlier this month, her family received the news that it had relapsed for a third time, and will need end-of-life care at home.
The South East has not had a pediatric palliative care service since 2017, and so Fiadh's parents feared she would not be able to spend her last moments surrounded by family. She has a little brother called Páidí who absolutely adores her.
One positive of the situation is that Fiadh has nurses and doctors in the family, who would have cared for her at home.
"Fiadh is lucky she has aunties who are doctors and nurses and they were always going to care for her at home. We needed the HSE to take clinical responsibility for her palliative care and now we have been promised this. Thankfully our beautiful hero Fiadh will be cared for at home by her family with the support and clinical guidance of the palliative care team in the South East," the family said.
They also told the Irish Independent that they would provide an update on how Fiadh is doing and whether the HSE keep its promise in the coming months.
