Dr.Orla Franklin: Paediatric Cardiologist

A day in the life of Dr. Orla Franklin

Most days we’re up by 6am. I have a daughter aged six and a boy who is two, so we have a busy morning. As a working mum this may be the only part of the day that I get to spend with them, particularly if I’m on call and I end up working late, so I try to make the morning as fun as possible.

 “Today I started my morning at 7.30am — a meeting with our CEO and members of the extended cardiac and intensive care team.

“Later I did a ward round in the intensive care unit, mainly on recently operated patients, the majority of whom are doing well. We operate on 550 children with heart disease every year at the centre — it’s the only centre in the country which provides care for children as sick as this.

“One couple I saw today had a three-year-old daughter awaiting a heart transplant. She had deteriorated over the weekend and we had to make practical decisions on how to best care for her and also to help the extended family deal with the huge pressure and problems they will face as she waits on the transplant list for the next six to nine months.

“Our team tries to help parents not only with the medical aspect of their child’s illness, but to provide emotional and practical support for families at this time.

“Some families may have to travel from the other side of the country and relocate their lives in Dublin for the period of their child’s treatment. This may result in families being split as dad stays with the other children and tries to keep the show on the road while mum relocates with the sick child to Crumlin.

“This places an immeasurable strain on families. There are very significant costs associated with relocation to Dublin to stay with a sick child — accommodation, food, transport.

“Today I also met the parents of a newborn baby who has been diagnosed with congenital heart disease. The parents had relocated from the west of Ireland in advance of the birth because we had identified significant problems with the baby.

“We are due to operate on the baby very shortly. Without the surgery the child would die.

“We provide world-class care for children with congenital heart disease in a ward environment which hasn’t had a full refurbishment since the 1960s.

“We need to improve our accommodation facilities to meet the care needs of these vulnerable children and to do that we’re planning to build a new cardiac ward to allow mothers to stay next to their babies.

“Currently, if they want to stay, they have to sleep on the floor or pay for parents’ accommodation. We are working with the Children’s Medical and Research Foundation to raise funds for this facility. We have been overcome by the generosity of patients and parents who are fully supportive of this venture.”

Dr Orla Franklin is a paediatric cardiologist at the National Children’s Heart Centre at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin, Dublin