{"id":620169,"date":"2026-08-04T16:00:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T16:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/620169\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T16:00:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T16:00:23","slug":"woman-who-confronted-taoiseach-secures-go-ahead-for-daughters-us-surgery-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/620169\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman who confronted Taoiseach secures go-ahead for daughter\u2019s US surgery \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 19-year-old woman with cerebral palsy, a dysplastic hip, a twisted femur and a retroverted pelvis is to receive specialised surgery in the US<\/a> following years of campaigning by her family.<\/p>\n

In September of last year, Antoinette Burke confronted Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> on his way into a Fianna F\u00e1il<\/a> think-in at the Rochestown Park Hotel in Cork<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Burke told the Taoiseach that her daughter Katie Byrne had been waiting for surgery for 15 years. <\/p>\n

She claimed that if her daughter had received surgery as a child, she would not need a hip replacement now, an operation which can only be carried out at the Paley Orthopaedic and Spine Institute in Florida. The surgery costs in the region of \u20ac300,000. <\/p>\n

Fundraising was ongoing for the surgery and for post-surgery physiotherapy costs. <\/p>\n

Katie Byrne from Cobh, Co Cork told the Opinion Line with PJ Coogan on Cork\u2019s 96FM that the HSE<\/a> has agreed to fund the vital surgery in Florida<\/a> later this year. <\/p>\n

When she was six years old, her family fundraised \u20ac60,000 to pay for surgery at a children\u2019s hospital in the US. <\/p>\n

She said she hopes to be walking with her \u201cnew legs\u201d by Christmas. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it has sunk in. There have been false alarms surrounding it. I have been sobbing. But now it is real. The way I phrase it probably isn\u2019t the way I should phrase it but I am getting new legs. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe HSE has agreed to fund my surgery entirely as well as my physiotherapy before and after. We are waiting on a date. It should be some time after the end of August.\u201d<\/p>\n

Katie has a constant base level of pain which goes from \u201chumming in the background\u201d to chronic pain. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a very dynamic disability-type situation. One day I could run a marathon, so to speak, and the next I\u2019m bedridden. It is very situation dependent. <\/p>\n

\u201cI did my Leaving Cert. I went in my wheelchair as I didn\u2019t want to overdo it. I got a lot of back pain (during the exams) because of, like, sitting for long periods of time. My school were great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Katie expects to be in the States for nine weeks as she requires two procedures which will need to be spaced out. She will be non-weight bearing for six weeks. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Miche\u00e1l Martin criticises some councils over \u2018inertia\u2019 on housing and zoning landOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\"AntoinetteAntoinette Burke confronted Miche\u00e1l Martin in September 2025 over delays in treatment for her daughter Katie Byrne, who lives with cerebral palsy. Photograph: Noel Sweeney\/PA <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, her mother Antoinette Burke told the show that two HSE staff members confirmed the news last Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs of today it is 15 years, 10 months and 11 days since Katie was diagnosed with hip dysplasia. It is a happy relief. He did (Taoiseach) escalate it (the approval) but it is still 10 months since then. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have had to fight tooth and nail in the background. The poor girl I have been dealing with in the HSE. I was always e-mailing her asking for updates. I kept at them and at them and eventually they said yes.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully, we will be back in Ireland by November just before Katie\u2019s birthday. I emailed the doctor directly and within six minutes his secretary was on to me about a date for surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is his speciality. I am watching different people he has operated on. He is phenomenal at his job. It\u2019s surreal. We have waited so long. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf I am going to the shops and I ask Katie what she wants, she (jokingly) says, \u2018New legs.\u2019 Now she is getting them.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0A close look at one of the new surgical hubs in Ireland: \u2018Low complexity, high volume\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 19-year-old woman with cerebral palsy, a dysplastic hip, a twisted femur and a retroverted pelvis is to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,1877,18,13,14,4771,2129,6,60,19,17,11,12,15,16,5765,5,7,8,384],"class_list":["post-620169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-cork","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-fianna-fail","tag-florida","tag-headlines","tag-hse","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-micheal-martin","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-united-states"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117038077596403957","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}