Cork toddler Megan Hope Byrne. Picture: Eddie O’Hare

Toddler Megan Hope Byrne has been described by her mum as a miracle after coming through 15 surgeries in her short life.
Megan from Hollyhill, who turned two in February, was born with severe health difficulties, including hydrocephalus, which causes fluid on her brain. She was also born with a cleft palate.
She was not expected to survive beyond six months. But her mum Janice is looking ahead to enrolling her in COPE’s nursery next February.
Janice said: “She is a miracle and an inspiration. She is just fabulous. She has come through a lot of operations and although she can’t walk, she is bum-shuffling around the place.
“She cannot speak but is making sounds so getting her walking and talking is the priority now that the serious operations are behind her,” added mum Janice.
Megan’s battle against the odds will feature on a TV3 documentary on TV3 tonight. Megan underwent reconstruction surgery for her skull last November. She has stilts on her legs to help strengthen her ankles, and has had grommets placed in her ears in April to help improve her hearing.
When Janice was just 14 weeks pregnant, she was told that her unborn baby had serious health problems.
In each subsequent scan, the gravity of her issues increased as her head continued to increase in size because of hydrocephalus.
She was told that Megan was not expected to make it through the pregnancy.
Yet, despite the prognosis, she was able to go home a fortnight after her birth — although her family were warned she would not live beyond six months.
Her story will be told at 9pm
tonight on TV3 in Saving Megan: A Temple Street Special.