The young girl has a severe bowel condition where she had not been to the toilet in months
The mum of a Northern Ireland teenager says her daughter’s life was “put at risk” after a life-changing surgery was cancelled a couple of days before it was due to take place.
Zoe Stinson says her daughter Summer has suffered with a severe bowel condition for the past 14 years after problems were discovered when she was 19-days-old. She has had to take laxatives every day since then with her mum saying she has been “overlooked” with her treatment and waiting years for surgery to take place.
At the moment, she has been unable to go to the toilet properly for nine months and had a surgery scheduled to help deal with this that was due to take place on Monday, November 24, at the Ulster Hospital. However, a couple of days prior on Friday, this was cancelled with her mum being told at the time that another surgery would not be possible until next year.
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Zoe claims that she was told “if she starts vomiting her own faeces, ring 999 – it’s a medical emergency” when she asked what to do if her daughter’s condition gets any worse while she waits for surgery.
The concerned mum says the news left her terrified for the safety of her daughter because if anything was to go wrong there would only be a couple of hours to save her life.
She said: “For the past 14 years Summer has had problems with her bowel and has not been able to have a normal life because of it. She has been on laxative treatment since she was a baby, but has never had any kind of permanent treatment that would give her her life back.
“When we got a date for surgery we were very excited as this surgery could change Summer’s life, but then a few days before we were supposed to go to the hospital we were told that due to a specific staffing issue the surgery would be cancelled and it could be next year before another would be available.
“All I was told was that if she starts vomiting her own faeces, ring 999 – it’s a medical emergency. It was terrifying as Summer’s life would constantly be at risk in case anything serious happened as we would only have a few hours to save her.
“I knew I couldn’t stand for this and did all I can to raise as much awareness about the way that Summer had been left in the hopes that I could create enough pressure so she could get the surgery as soon as possible.
“Thankfully, we have since been told that Summer will have a new surgery scheduled for two weeks time and I just hope that she can finally get the treatment she needs that will give her her life back.”
A South Eastern Trust spokesperson said: “The South Eastern Trust can’t comment on individual cases in order to protect patient confidentiality. The Trust would like to stress that Emergency Surgery would not be cancelled. In the event that a planned procedure does not go ahead, it is rescheduled as soon as possible.
“We completely understand how distressing it is for a patient and their family to wait for a procedure.
“Our teams work very hard to ensure they can proceed on the first available date.”
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