Irish Deaf Boy told to go to UK for an operation.

A DEAF boy has been told to travel to the UK for a life-changing operation despite an anonymous donor offering to pay for his €20,000-plus surgery here.

Liam Cunneen-McCormack (6) has been refused the surgery in Dublin because of a funding impasse between the Health Service Executive (HSE) and Beaumont Hospital.  His parents, Julie and Keith, have slated the HSE's treatment of their son after he was initially told by a medic that his hearing was normal.  The full extent of his deafness was not discovered until he was 17 months old.

His parents were told a double or bilateral cochlear transplant offered him the best chance of some form of hearing.  In Ireland, funding issues have limited children to a cochlear implant in just a single ear. In countries like the UK, US and Australia implants in both ears are regarded as best practice.  The Cork-based family was informed last December that because of funding issues, Liam's second surgery could not go ahead.

Julie, who is also deaf, revealed that the family were astounded when an anonymous donor contacted them to offer to pay for the second implant.  But the family was informed on February 27 that Liam's procedure still cannot go ahead.  In a letter from Beaumont Hospital the family was told the precedent was unacceptable.

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