Kerry boy (14) in windowless room – ‘Animals in Dublin Zoo are in better conditions than my son’
by Honest-Football-7087
Kerry boy (14) in windowless room – ‘Animals in Dublin Zoo are in better conditions than my son’
by Honest-Football-7087
6 comments
If windowless rooms are illegal for rented accommodation then why are they legal for hospital patients ?
This lady needs to railise that we have to house thousands if non nationals first.
Listowel mother Lidiya Tolesa is battling for her son as he stays in a windowless room at University Hospital Kerry (UHK).
14-year-old Alazar Mehari has spent close to 60 days in the room located off the emergency department at UHK. He is considered to be one of the most severely affected children to emerge from the Kerry Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) saga in North Kerry.
The condition of the room was revealed to The Kerryman showing rubbish strewn on the floor with a single mattress the only furniture. A small window on the door is boarded up with a tiny gap left for light to get through.
According to Lidiya, Alazar is sometimes unable to use the bathroom as the door is locked. He is going to the toilet in the room and smearing his faeces on the walls and over his body. Lidiya wants the HSE to intervene and give her son a better standard of care.
“He has been locked up in a room for most of his life after the treatment he got under CAMHS. Animals in Dublin Zoo are being treated better. My son deserves access to things like the bathroom. He is only a child and nobody should be treated in such an unacceptable manner,” Lidiya said.
Sinn Féin Deputy Pa Daly recently raised the matter in the Dáil and expressed concern for Alazar’s care. This was picked up by the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar who asked Deputy Daly to pass on contact details for Alazar’s family.
A statement from UHK has since said that while it understands and empathises with the public interest in Alazar’s case, its policy is not to comment on individual patient cases, as patient confidentiality and privacy is paramount to UHK.
“We remain committed to providing the highest standard of care with the resources available, to everyone who seeks treatment at UHK,” the statement said.
In February 2023, the HSE apologised for ‘defects in care’ Alazar received under CAMHS. His mother does not accept the apology and wants a deeper explanation into what happened.
She explained the HSE has offered Alazar an eight-week interim placement in Cork but Lidiya wants treatment to be provided in Kerry. She is fighting to keep her son at home amid fears he may be moved to a facility in County Louth after his interim placement in Cork is completed.
“If he leaves Kerry I will be without access to him again. I don’t want him to be alienated from his family anymore. His family is here in Kerry; he will not be getting any more specialised care in Louth than he would get in Kerry,” she said.
Lidiya added that Alazar has been guaranteed a school placement in Kerry this September. As school placements for children in Ireland with complex needs are not ‘a dime a dozen’, Lidiya wants him to remain in Kerry for the duration of his care.
Alazar was proscribed a cocktail of drugs under CAMHS that his mother said ruined his life. The drugs caused hallucinations, seizures, and violent episodes to the point where his family were afraid of the harm he might cause.
“Since he came home to Kerry he has presented with seizure-like episodes, he is presenting with severe long-term side-effects of Risperidone use. When I gave my consent to use medication, I did not know that anti-psychotic drugs like Risperidone were being used. I do not want my child to have to leave Kerry again. He has been through enough and deserves better for all that was done to him,” she said.
The child and family agency TUSLA has been contacted for a comment but no reply has yet been received.
Mental health services have been the dogs arse of our system for years. There isn’t much political capital in showing up to a ribbon cutting at a mental health facility, versus throwing a few more quid into (equally deserving) cancer care or children’s hospitals. There’s no stigma around those.
This leads to treatment like this, which is well reported on by HIQA and others in regular reviews of some of our more Victorian institutions. And yet it continues. 🤷♂️
What do you want a window for in ireland its always grey and raining
Can we please stop paying taxes for this.