A TEENAGER has spent months in pain waiting for a vital operation.
Rebecca Thompson, 14, has scoliosis (curvature of the spine) and needs two operations to correct it.
The first, to chip away part of her backbone, was done on March 18 at City General Hospital in Stoke-on-Trent.
But Rebecca, who has cerebral palsy, has been waiting five months for the second, to insert metal rods into her back.
Her distraught mother Sharon Clark says she has heard nothing since leaving the hospital, despite phone calls and sending a recorded letter.
Two surgeons, one from Gobowen hospital, the other from Stoke, carried out the operation.
Speaking from her home in Beacon-sfield Road, Shotton, Ms Clark said: 'We were sent home on March 28 and the Gobowen surgeon promised she would be seen at the end of April for the second stage.
'We came home to wait and we are still waiting. She hasn't even had a post-operative appointment to check she's OK.'
Rebecca, a pupil of Dorin Park Special School in Chester, was born premature at 23 weeks.
She is on painkillers and has to use an unsuitable wheelchair.
'We can't have a new chair until the second operation,' said her mum.
'She's in terrible pain. She's very uncomfortable and we can't go anywhere. As a family, we only have half a life.'
Rebecca even cancelled her annual visit to the NCH playscheme at Ysgol Delyn, Mold, for the first time since she was five because of the agony she is in.
But she now has a ray of hope. Ms Clark said: 'After the Chronicle got involved, we suddenly got a consultation appointment in Staffordshire at 10am next Thursday.'
A spokesman for the University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust said as well as two surgeons Rebecca's surgery requires a paediatric spinal anaesthetist and a consultant neurophysiologist.
He said: 'The Trust acknowledges the involvement of two spinal centres in the delivery of this complex treatment has contributed to a breakdown in communication and offers its sincere apologies to Rebecca and her family for any distress caused.'
