The family of a 4-year-old cancer patient are not being offered an end-of-life service in their home.
That's according to South East Radio.
Fiadh O'Connor from Wexford has a rare stage 4 paediatric cancer which has relapsed for the third time in three years.
Her family know she cannot be cured but would like to spend the time she has left at home.
Her family have said, “We have received the devastating news that there is no cure for Fiadh’s disease at this stage. She has now been referred to the palliative care team by her oncology team in Crumlin."
They have expressed that they want Fiadh to spend the time she has left at home with her family.
Apparently, she has a little brother who she adores.
Fiadh has been receiving aggressive treatment for the disease for the past three years.
She is still undergoing chemotherapy in order to try and control the spread of the cancer and to stabilise it in "her little body."
A paediatric home care palliative service has not been available in the South East since 2017, meaning just because of where her home is, she does not have access to her right to die at home.
Fiadh has undergone multiple major surgeries, over 120 days of chemotherapy, months in hospital, radiotherapy, intra-operative radiotherapy, 12 months of immunotherapy, 2 stem cell transplants, and 100s of blood transfusions amongst other things.
For some of those treatments, her family raised fundraisers in order to pay for them.
"She has had the best medical care available in Ireland and we fundraised and used our own funds to bring her to Memorial Sloan Cancer Centre in New York for surgery and treatment. We have tried everything we can to give her the best chance to fight this awful disease but we have run out of options and her little body is tired of fighting," her family said.
Fiadh's aunty, Orla, expressed to South East Radio that there are two nurses and three doctors in the family who are more than happy to care for their niece.
"We will require access to support services but we do need a palliative home care team that would take clinical responsibility for Fiadh’s care," she said.
