A DUBLIN man who has been refused funding for vital surgery abroad has said that he will take up a cross and wear a crown of thorns outside Leinster House today to highlight his plight.
Richard Ranaghan (75) has also pledged to fast outside Leinster House for 48 hours to protest at the refusal of the Health Service Executive to fund his treatment.
He was diagnosed two years ago at Beaumont Hospital with a spinal fistula, a growth on a vein in his spine, which will leave him paralysed if it is not treated.
The pensioner, who lives in sheltered accommodation in north Dublin, has been recommended for pioneering treatment at the Harley Street Clinic in London.
The private clinic has agreed to treat him and even offered to carry out the laser procedure for €12,000, half the usual cost, but the HSE has refused to approve funding.
Mr Ranaghan’s son Michael told The Irish Times yesterday that his father felt he has run out of options.
His doctor at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, neurosurgeon Prof Ciarán Bolger, had told him that his condition could usually be treated with surgery, but in rare cases when the growth was too close to the spinal nerve, the risk of paralysis was too great.
Mr Ranaghan said that the doctor had recommended the laser treatment, which is not available in Ireland, and had liaised with the London clinic and the HSE in an attempt to arrange the treatment.
“The condition is progressive. My father is slowly losing his mobility and if he is not treated, he will be paralysed,” Mr Ranaghan said. He said that the laser treatment would stop his condition degenerating.
The family applied under the EU 112 Treatment Abroad Scheme, operated by the HSE, but the application was rejected because the treatment would be carried out at a private hospital.
“My father has said he will fast for 48 hours and we are very worried about him,” Mr Ranaghan said, “but he feels it is the only way to make a protest.”
A spokeswoman for the HSE said that the treatment abroad scheme allowed it to refer public patients, ordinarily resident in Ireland, for treatment in the public system of another EU-EEA country where the treatment was not available in Ireland.
“All treatment abroad patients who apply for treatment that meets the criteria and guidelines of the scheme receive approval,” the spokeswoman added. “This approval cannot be extended to private facilities.”
