‘I had been told I couldn’t be seen for another three months, the reality is I might not have been here in three months’

A mum driven by fear and frustration at waiting almost six months for cancer test results stormed into her local emergency department and said she would not move until she was seen by a specialist.

Despite a number of efforts by staff to get her to go home, Caroline Sherwin refused to leave and waited there for 13 hours — a decision which may well have saved her life.

Ms Sherwin, from Donacarney, Co Meath, went to the emergency department of Our Lady Of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda last Thursday and stayed there, ignoring what she described as intimidation by medical staff to try and get her to leave, before eventually being seen by a surgeon at 10.30pm.