By Conor Sharkey
AN Artigarvan mother is seeking legal advice over a blunder which saw her four-year-old daughter sent home from hospital with the wrong leg in plaster.
The shocking blunder happened on Friday evening, after four-year-old Megan Jack was knocked off her scooter as she played outside her Liscurry Gardens home in the village.
Realising the ankle was broke, Megan's mother Rose immediately rushed her daughter to Altnagelvin's Accident and Emergency department.
wrong leg
Speaking on Tuesday, Rose explained: "They did an x-ray on her right leg, where the bone was sticking through the ankle.
"But then they plastered the left leg. I was so tired that I didn't even notice.
"But when we got home, Megan was still in a while state and I tried to get her settled and gave her Nurofen.
"But then I noticed that the plaster was on the wrong leg and I said to my son about it.
"I phone Altnagelvin to check and they laughed at me. I couldn't believe it," she said.
The mother-of-four has been so outraged at her treatment by Altnagelvin staff that she intends to consult her solicitor on the matter.
"I had to go back to the hospital to have the plaster changed the same night and they just laughed at me again.
"I'm glad they find it funny because I didn't and I will be speaking to my solicitor about this.
"The attitude of Altnagelvin when I phoned them was ridiculous and if I could have taken Megan to another hospital, be it Coleraine or Belfast, I would have.
"What has angered me the most is that they made a joke out this. You never think something like this could happen and you trust these people with your life.
"I took my daughter to hospital for help and I got laughed at.
"They let me and Megan so badly down and at this point legal action is the only course of action open to me,' Rose said.
When contacted the Western Health and Social Care Trust yesterday refused to be drawn on the possibility of legal action being taken against them.
A Trust spokesman told the Strabane Chronicle that the matter had been investigated and was being treated very seriously.
