Irish toddler Elie Madden returns home from the US after life-saving operation
THE GOVERNMENT JET & HSE TEAM TOGETHER EFFECTIVELY FOR ONCE WITH GOOD PURPOSE
Elie Madden along with her parents Esti and Eddie and member of the HSE medical team after arriving home on the Government jet flown last night from Boston.
The Dublin toddler twin who was treated successfully in Boston for a rare medical condition is recovering in Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Dublin, today.
Eighteen-month-old Elie Madden, who was flown out by Government jet to Boston five months ago, arrived with her family and a specialist medical team and Air Corps crew into Baldonnel last night.
She had not been able to breathe or swallow unaided when she left Ireland late last year, and was placed in a coma for 38 days in Boston Children’s Hospital to “grow” her oesophagus.
After seven operations, she took her first normal meal – vanilla pudding – a few days ago, and has been able to use her voice for the first time.
“She hadn’t been well before we left Boston, but she bounced back as she always does, slept most of the way, was monitored by a doctor and nurse and we’re on our way now to Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin,” her father, Eddie Madden told The Irish Times, speaking at Baldonnel aerodrome.
“She’s got a great Irish appetite, ”US surgeon Dr Russell Jennings, who led the treatment at Boston Children’s Hospital, told said yesterday.
Elie was diagnosed with a rare digestive disorder at birth known as severe posterior tracheomalacia and long-gap oesophageal atresia.
A five-centimetre gap between her oesophagus and stomach prevented her from being able to eat, drink or swallow without medical equipment.
Dr Jennings and colleagues at Boston are world experts in an oesophagus “growing” procedure devised by Minnesota paediatric surgeon John Foker.
Dr Foker worked with Dr Jennings and team on Elie’s treatment, which was covered by the Health Service Executive (HSE) and VHI.
Dr Jennings is also due to start treating a second Dublin twin with the same condition this week. 13-month Sergio O’Connor was flown to Boston on Monday by the Air Corps, which then took the Maddens home on the return flight.
Elie was accompanied by her parents Esti and Eddie, her healthy twin sister Emie, her grandmother Anita and a specialist Health Service Executive (HSE) team.
It is the first time that the State’s Gulfstream IV has been used for a transatlantic air ambulance mission of this type.
“We have been overwhelmed by the unbelievable support to her case, but we are ware that we have passed the first big hurdle of a long journey ahead, in order to provide Elie with a normal life,” her parents added.
As much as 40% of Galway Gardai receive a Gaeltacht allowance 'new figures show'
Almost 40 per cent of gardaí stationed in Galway are in receipt of a Gaeltacht Allowance, new figures released by the Department of Justice, Equality and Defence have shown.
The figures, which were released in response to a question by Galway Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh, show that of the 585 gardaí in the Galway Division, 221 are in receipt of the allowance, which amounts to 7.5 per cent of basic salary. This is down slightly from 2007, when 235 Galway Gardaí received the allowance.
Unveiling the figures in the Seanad last week, Minister for Justice Alan Shatter said there are a “substantial number” of garda personnel who continue to be paid the allowance to cater for areas where members of the force are required to be proficient in Irish.
He also indicated that the arrangements for the payment of Gaeltacht Allowances are being examined by the Garda Commissioner, but said that he was “not aware of any major event about to happen in the context of the allowance”.
Under current legislation, the Garda Commissioner must ensure that members of the organisation stationed in a district that includes a Gaeltacht area have “sufficient Irish competency” to perform their duties.
Speaking in the Seanad, Minister Shatter emphasised that conducting business through Irish is part of the language curriculum delivered to all Garda Trainees in the Garda College at Templemore.
“In addition, arrangements have been made to ensure that if a member of the Garda Síochána cannot provide an immediate service through Irish when a member of the public requests it, an Irish-proficient member of An Garda Síochána will be contacted and made available,” he said, adding that both the Government and An Garda Síochána “are, and will continue to be, strongly committed to the Irish language”.
Meanwhile, An Coimisinéir Teanga has singled out the stations in the Connemara Gaeltacht for their 100 per cent compliance with statutory obligations that require members of the force stationed in Gaeltacht areas to have the necessary competence in the language.
In his annual report, An Coimisinéir Teanga found that the garda station at An Bun Beag-Doirí Beaga in Co. Donegal had breached the legislation which imposes an obligation on the Garda Commissioner to ensure, to the extent practicable, that members stationed in a district which includes a Gaeltacht area are fluent in the Irish language.
Seán Ó Cuirreáin also found that there was a breach of a statutory commitment that requires members of the force stationed in Gaeltacht areas to have the necessary qualifications in Irish, following a complaint from a native Irish speaker who had been unable to conduct business in Irish at the Gaoth Dobhair station.
Irish use in Gaeltacht areas:
- 68.5 per cent of the 96,628 people living in Gaeltacht areas nationally indicated that they could speak Irish in the 2011 Census.
- 24 per cent stated they spoke Irish daily outside the education system.
- Daily use of Irish is most common in the Galway Gaeltacht, with a total of 10,721 people – 10,085 in County Galway and 636 in Galway City – speaking Irish on a daily basis outside the education system.
Missing Madeline McCann picture released as a 9-year-old now
As almost 200 leads say she could still be alive
Pictured above Madeleine McCann in 2007 and as she might look now aged 9
English police (Scotland Yard) have urged Portuguese authorities to reopen the search for Madeleine McCann today as detectives said there were 195 potential leads to finding her alive.
The detective leading the Metropolitan Police review said the case could still be solved before officers released a picture of what she might now look like as a nine-year-old.
Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood said he believed her disappearance was a stranger abduction, as he said there were 195 “investigative opportunities”.
Police refused to say what evidence they had uncovered to suggest Madeleine was alive.
Mr Redwood confirmed that his team of more than 30 officers involved in the case had been out to Portugal seven times, including a visit to the family’s holiday flat in Praia da Luz.
It will be five years ago next week since the three-year-old went missing as her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann dined with friends nearby.
A spokesman for the McCanns said the family were pleased with the image.
Mr Redwood said his 37 officers had dealt with 40,000 pieces of information but the “primacy still sits in Portugal” in the attempt to find her.
Commander Simon Foy said: “Most significantly, the message we want to bring to you is that, on the evidence, there is a possibility that she is alive and we desperately need your help today to appeal directly to the public for information to support our investigation.”
Mr Redwood said “evidence that she is alive stems from the forensic view of the timeline” that there was the opportunity for her to be taken.
Investigations show “there do appear to be gaps”, he added.
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