Mother says HSE withdrew funds for boy’s hearing op

A YOUNG mother who travelled to Italy earlier this summer for pioneering surgery on her deaf son’s hearing is continuing ‘exhaustive’ fundraising after she claimed the HSE withdrew funds for the €76,000 operation.

Two-year-old Josh Butler from Midleton, Co. Cork, was born deaf and was selected for an auditory brain stem implant by a prominent surgeon in Italy who has restored hearing to suitable applicants.

His surgery took place in late June. He is responding well to the electrodes and his mother Chloe said she has every reason to be hopeful about a partial recovery of his hearing.

Josh is having some reaction to the surgery although work with a speech therapist will be vital to determine the extent of its success. Ms Butler said she is pleased with his progress so far.

She said: ‘We 100 per cent think he is getting something from this and it’s still only early days. Back to Italy in two weeks to have it tuned and this will continue every three months.

‘The one thing we don’t have but really need is a speech therapist. ‘Josh needs three sessions a week.’ It is understood problems with the HSE funding arose after the surgery was switched to a private hospital in Verona from the public hospital a Dublin consultant referred them to.

The family did not realise that the switch of venue would jeopardise the funding.

In a statement the HSE said: ‘The HSE operates a Treatment Abroad Scheme (TAS) for persons entitled to treatment in another EU/EEA member state or Switzerland under EU Regulations and in accordance with DoH guidelines. Approvals are only issued for specified public hospitals abroad... at no time has the HSE TAS given approval for a patient to attend a private hospital abroad.’

Donations to assist Josh’s treatment can be made by visiting the Baby Josh Treatment Fu n d page on www.gofundme.com.