Autistic child's parents lose treatment case
The parents of a 14-year-old autistic boy today lost their High Court battle to have him treated for his condition in Wales.
Lewis O’Carolan, had caused severe damage to his home at Norfolk Road, Phibsborough in Dublin and left his family in an environment of persistent stress and trauma with his kicking and screaming.
At the High Court today Judge John MacMenamin said the state had fulfilled its constitutional obligations by offering Lewis a place at the Woodlawn treatment centre in Lusk, Co Dublin.
“No authority has been cited to the effect that parents are entitled to choose the exact type of care and education which their child receives,” he said in his judgment.
Annette and Colm O’Carolan had been fighting for the right for their son to be treated at the Bangor Centre for Disabilities in Wales where specialist autism care was available.
Judge MacMenamin said the court recognised the exceptional hardship and strain involved in raising a severely disabled child and wished to acknowledge the extraordinary devotion and commitment shown by the applicant parents in seeking appropriate services for their child.
“Their concern went as far as retaining Lewis at home for a period of two years at what must have been an enormous emotional cost to themselves,” he said.
He added that the time had now come for the O’Carolans to place past perceptions to one side and to avail of an ffer which would allow Lewis to recognise his full potential as a human being.
However speaking outside the court Annette O’Carolan said she and her husband would not be sending Lewis to Woodlawn. “I’m just so stunned by this. This is a total injustice I think it’s a face-saving exercise to stop the state publicising that there are no autism specific services.”
Her husband Colm said they believed the Woodlawn centre would lead their son to Saint Ita’s in Portrane, Dublin which is a centre for psychiatric patients.
“We can’t take a psychiatric service and we won’t take a psychiatric service. We will have to get him into a service ourselves,” he said.
