Teenager recovers from op after delays

A Staffordshire teenager with a crippling spine condition has had the first stage of an operation to cure it.

Ben Mansell has been waiting for the procedure since last August, despite guidelines saying he should have been treated within 18 weeks.

The 15-year-old, of Cedar Crescent, Brereton, Rugeley, has kyphoscoliosis, a condition which causes curvature of the spine and can lead to paralysis. He was recovering at University Hospital North Staffordshire today after the first stage of an operation to treat the condition was done on Saturday.

Mother Andrea Maddox, aged 36, said she was pleased the procedure had finally gone ahead, but criticised health bosses for cancelling it on four previous occasions.

"The hospital staff have been brilliant," she said.

"We weren't complaining about them – we were complaining about the lack of beds. Ben's operation was cancelled because of the shortage.

"At the end of the day they shouldn't say there is definitely a bed when there isn't.

"How many other parents are being put through this?"

A West Midlands service review in 2007 identified that more intensive care beds were needed but none have yet been provided.

Mrs Maddox claims the delays mean that Ben's operation, which will see steel rods inserted into his spine, will now have to go ahead into two stages.

It was then cancelled on two separate occasions last year because no bed was available, and again on January 6 because the surgeon was off work.

She has now been told the second stage will go ahead in a fortnight's time. Hospital bosses have admitted breaching NHS targets.

A trust spokesman said: "Operations are normally cancelled if a patient's clinical condition makes it unsafe or if the necessary recovery facilities are unavailable.

"Both of these apply to Ben's case and the most recent cancellation was, sadly, due to an illness in the surgeon's family."