A mother of two is desperately pleading for a roof over her head so she can bring her son home from hospital for the first time.
Jennifer O’Connor, 37, wants one-year-old Jay and his older sister Aliyah to live together but she has no place to call home.
He suffered a cardiac arrest at birth and has complex medical needs and his consultant paediatrician medically discharged him in June.
But Jennifer still has to make a three-hour return journey taking two buses each way to visit her son at Cork University Hospital’s Ladybird ward.
She told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “A few months ago they told me I could take him out for a few hours but we had to bring him back as he got too upset.
“He was constantly crying and we had to bring him back to get his medication.
“It’s like hospital is home for him. It’s so sad, Aliyah comes in to see him but gets very upset crying when she’s leaving, saying she wants him home with us.
“I was told he was only going to live a short life.
“I just want to have him home with me and my daughter to live a bit of a life. I feel so helpless, it’s like I’m not doing anything for him.”
Jennifer and her seven-year-old daughter share a room at her parents’ home in the Killala Gardens estate which was recently overrun with rats.
She said she has informed Cork City Council she is a medical priority but she has not been able to find out where she is on the housing list.
Jay was airlifted to Sweden hours after his birth and spent a month in intensive care at a specialist unit.
He will undergo a procedure to be peg-fed through his stomach and currently requires continuous tube-feeding over 22 hours a day.
In a note, his paediatrician stated: “This letter is in support of Jay O’Connor and his guardian being placed in suitable housing. Jay has significant medical needs. He was born with congenital diaphragmatic hernia and has been in hospital since birth.
“He has severe neurological disability. He requires continuous nasogastric feeding.
“While Jay is medically fit for discharge, this would be dependent on him being discharged into a home suitable for his needs and where nursing care could visit, to provide support overnight for his guardian.”
Aliyah’s school also wrote a letter in support of the family finding suitable accommodation locally and held a fundraiser to help with Jay’s treatment.
Jennifer added: “Aliyah has just turned seven and she’s been diagnosed with stress and anxiety. She misses me when I go to the hospital.
“I go in at 10am and stay til 10am the next morning. I can’t sleep, I’m walking around all night. I’m afraid he’ll vomit or he’ll choke.”
