Boy ‘squealing in pain’ waited 12 hours for surgery

The father of a nine-year-old boy who was “squealing in pain” as he waited 12 hours for appendix surgery at South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) has hit out at Stormont politicians, saying: “Every single one of them should be ashamed of themselves.”
Terry McHugh, from Omagh, has no issue with the treatment his son Michael received from staff at SWAH, who he describes as “heroes”. However, as he sat by his son’s bedside in A&E waiting for him to be taken to surgery he witnessed that medical staff “were snowed under” and became increasingly “angry” with the “wastage” of money by Stormont decision makers.
“Very rarely does what goes on in Stormont affect me,” said Mr. McHugh, a comedian from North Belfast. “But I was watching my son squealing in pain and crying out: ‘Just do the surgery’. 
“For that to happen in Northern Ireland in this day and age is a disgrace. It’s not the nurses’ and doctors’ fault. There was so much going on that Michael was down their pecking order.
“They deserve better from our government.” 
Every single one of them in Stormont should be ashamed of themselves.”
Mr. McHugh’s wife Patricia called the Omagh out-of-hours number when her son began complaining of a sore stomach on the evening of Monday, November 28. She got a call back after mid-night and was told to bring him in. The doctor in Omagh said it was appendicitis and asked if Mrs. McHugh was OK to drive her son to SWAH. Upon arrival at SWAH Emergency Department around 1am, Michael was assessed and told it was most likely that the appendix would be perforated. He then waited on an A&E bed until 1pm the following day, when he was finally taken for surgery. 
“Michael was thirsty and we were told he would be getting a drip,” Mr. McHugh recalled. “But that drip never came. They did not choose not to put a drip up for him, they are just snowed under. He was there with no drip and no painkillers for the guts of 12 hours.”
The concerned dad was fearful that his son’s appendix would burst as he waited for surgery. “The appendix had perforated but the surgery went well and he was on Children’s Ward for four days,” Mr. McHugh continued, adding that “we couldn’t have asked for more from the staff on Children’s Ward.”
He told The Impartial Reporter: “I want to emphasise that the staff were amazing. They are heroes. At no point would they let on how much pressure they were under. It’s from the top-down that’s the problem. 
“As I sat there I thought about the £50,000 a night it cost to police Twadell Avenue – that would pay for an extra nurse in Enniskillen; or the £40,000 legal costs in Edwin Poots’ gay blood ban case; or, if the hospital had installed a renewable heat incentive boiler, imagine how much money they could have raked in to pay for extra doctors.
“And the sad thing is, in four year’s time we will go out and vote for these people again. In any other society where the politicians are cocking up as badly as ours are, they wouldn’t get back near the place.”
He concluded: “Nurses, doctors and teachers are the most important part of our society. If our government isn’t looking after them, that’s not on.”