Family of paralysed woman launch fund campaign
Catherine O’Leary’s family said they will also examine other avenues such as the National Treatment Purchase Fund in a desperate attempt to get her the urgent help she needs.
The 31-year-old mother of one from Ballincollig, Co Cork, is paralysed from the neck down after two strokes following a risky brain operation to remove a tumour last February.
She now has Locked-in Syndrome, leaving her fully aware and awake but unable to move or communicate.
She has been confined to a high-dependency bed in Cork University Hospital (CUH) for the last four months because there is no rehab bed available for her in the National Rehabilitation Hospital (NRH) in Dún Laoghaire.
A born fighter, Catherine has learned to breath on her own and communicate using eyelid blinks.
The NRH said patients must be passed medically fit before being accepted into rehab programmes.
But of the NRH’s 119 beds, only about three are set aside for high-dependency patients.
The waiting time for rehab programmes ranges between six and nine months, a spokeswoman said.
Catherine’s father, Pat, who spoke out yesterday to highlight her plight, said his daughter has been passed medically fit to travel by CUH doctors.
He said he feels as if the family is being dismissed but he vowed to continue their fight.
He also criticised the delays in accessing a rehab bed and said he and his family are desperate to get help for Catherine.
“We will do whatever we can to get Catherine the help she deserves,” he said.
“We don’t care where we have to go. Even if we have to go to India, we will.”
Pat said he is planning to sell the family car to raise money for the fund which has been set up in the TSB bank in Cork city. A major fundraiser is also being planned in his home town of Ballincollig in August.
The Labour party said the O’Leary’s plight highlighted the woeful lack of services for people with acquired brain injury.
The party’s disability spokesperson, Kathleen Lynch, branded delays accessing rehab beds for people with brain injury a “silent epidemic”.
She quoted figures which show that about 30 people a day in Ireland suffer some kind of brain injury and a further 30 people suffer a stroke, which can also lead to brain injury.
It is also estimated that there are about 30,000 people in Ireland with an ongoing disability due to brain injury, Ms Lynch said.
“Services are woefully inadequate to cope with these kinds of numbers, and inconsistent across the country,” she said.
“The majority of services are provided by voluntary organisations — all have waiting lists. But they know they are only scratching the surface.”
She said these support organisations, all of which have waiting lists, all say there is a chronic shortage of beds for patients with acquired brain injuries, and a complete lack of such beds in some regions.
“People with a brain injury may spend three years in a long-stay care bed but if they get the proper treatment and a proper rehabilitation process, they can be up and about, returning to normality and looking after themselves,” she said.
“With a serious head injury, immediate intervention is essential to ensure the person returns to normality, if normality can be achieved.”
It is conservatively estimated that there are 10,000 new brain injuries every year in Ireland but there are just 110 beds available. “That doesn’t make sense at any level,” Ms Lynch said.
“A recent report tells us that there are 20 neurologists in the country when, given our population base, there should be 42.
“We have nine neurosurgeons when we should have 16. The Netherlands has 12 times the number of rehabilitation consultants per head of population than Ireland.”
At present, there are approximately 700,000 people with a neurological condition in the Republic and with people living longer, it is estimated that there will be 800,000 affected in 10 years time.
*Massachusetts has a population of 6.3 million. It has 14 rehab units and 19 specialists per million of population.
*Berlin has a population of 3.2 million. It has 120 rehab units and 30 specialists per million of population.
*Bucharest has a population of 2.2 million. It has 32 specialists per million of population.
* The Republic of Ireland has a population of 4.2 million. It has one rehab unit and 1.4 specialists per million of population.
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