THE Belfast Trust has reversed a decision to deny a disabled teenager access to a wheelchair to enable him to travel to London for treatment.
In early July, the Andersonstown News reported how Conleth Pierce (17) suffered a non-traumatic leg fracture shortly after undergoing hip surgery five years ago, however, the Trust failed to identify the break.
The Hannahstown teen lives with a number of severely debilitating conditions including cerebral palsy, which decreases bone density. He also suffers from epilepsy, blindness, and a bone condition known as osteopenia.
With Belfast Trust failing to identify Conleth's femur fracture, it had agreed to pay for him to go to London for specialist treatment but was refusing to sign off on a charity wheelchair loan that would enable him to travel.
The Trust has since bowed to pressure and Conleth now has his new specialist wheelchair that, unlike his old chair, will fit on a plane.
His mum, Lisa Pierce, said: "They literally just seemed to have a blanket policy regardless of the circumstances.
"They came in one day, which I think was a Friday, and we had the wheelchair by the following Monday."
"The OT (Occupational Therapies) were just directed to sign off on it," she continued.
"There was no admission of guilt, their recognition that it was a poor policy, no apology, nothing like that.
"If they had done what we asked in the first place then we wouldn't have had to get a loan chair."
Conleth will travel for treatment in two weeks time.
