Anger over delayed op

A seven-year-old girl whose tonsils have been swollen for almost a year is still waiting for an operation to remove them six months after one was cancelled.

Emily Neal, of Philip Road, Newark, was due to have her tonsils and adenoids removed at King’s Mill Hospital, Sutton-in-Ashfield, on April 1.

The operation was cancelled the day before.

Her mother, Miss Beverley Neal (40) said her daughter’s swollen tonsils blocked the back of her throat.

Emily has sleep apnoea, which sometimes causes her to stop breathing when she is asleep.

Miss Neal sometimes sleeps beside Emily who also has epilepsy and is autistic.

Miss Neal said: “It is not very nice lying next to her when she stops breathing all the time. You wonder if she is going to breathe again.”

She said it was very scary at first but she had become used to it.

Miss Neal said the ward where children went after the type of operation Emily needs had been moved in a redevelopment at King’s Mill and an ambulance was needed to take patients to the ward across from the main building.

She said she was told the operation was cancelled because the ambulance that would transport Emily did not have the resuscitation equipment needed in case she stopped breathing.

Miss Neal said when she heard the operation was cancelled and the reason for it she thought it was best for Emily.

But she said she had contacted the hospital many times since then to ask when the operation would go ahead and had not been given any answers.

Miss Neal said the last time she spoke to somebody, about six weeks ago, she was told Emily’s notes had been passed to the Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham, but she had heard nothing since then.

She said: “With the size of the QMC where do you start ringing someone for answers?

“It has been more than six months now, which is ridiculous.”

Miss Neal said having swollen tonsils was uncomfortable for her daughter, but Emily’s autism meant she did not complain about it.

A spokesman for the Sherwood Forest Hospitals Trust, said they referred Emily to the Queen’s Medical Centre because she has epilepsy and sleep apnoea.

He said: “To operate on her with those two conditions you would need a paediatric high-dependency unit, which we don’t have at King’s Mill Hospital.

“To operate without this would be a risk to her life so she has been transferred for her own safety.”

The spokesman said Miss Neal should have been contacted by telephone or letter about this and he would look into whether this was the case.

A spokesman for the QMC said they were trying to locate Emily’s notes.