'Our miracle child owes his life to the Erne'

WHEN a child takes the bus on his first day of school it is often one of the saddest days in a Mother’s life, but Maguiresbridge native Caroline McCaffrey will be beaming with pride in September as her son takes his final steps on the road to recovery.

Joseph McCaffrey was born on October 1 2008, six and a half weeks premature and almost four weeks later on Halloween night his parents noticed he had a heavy cough. They brought him to their local GP and he was then transferred to the children’s ward at the Erne with a suspected chest infection or Bronchiolitis, both of which can be terminal in such a young child. After tests through the night Joseph’s condition deteriorated and he was transferred to Our Lady’s Hospital in Dublin in the morning, as there were no beds in Belfast.

Joseph’s situation was so serious he was baptised  the evening before, with Caroline fearing the worst.

“It is one of the most horrifying things you can hear from a doctor that they’re doing everything they can to keep your son alive, but until they can get him on a ventilator he is in a very critical condition. They told us that had we got stuck in traffic on the way to the hospital he might not have made it.”