Mother describes 'traumatic' evacuation of son in coma during Wexford hospital blaze
Maresa Corrigan of Curracloe, Co Wexford, at University Hospital Waterford, where her son Darren is receiving care. Picture: Patrick Browne
A mother who raced through hospital corridors alongside her son as staff wheeled him to safety while fire alarms rang in Wexford General Hospital has praised the “incredible” help she received.
Maresa Corrigan’s son Darren was one of more than 200 patients rescued on Wednesday evening when fire broke out at the site. He has been in a coma since a quad bike accident in 2016 and has been cared for in Wexford for most of that time.
“It was so traumatic,” she said. “It all happened so quickly. I heard the alarm and went to Darren’s door. I could hear people saying there was smoke.
"Everyone was rushing around. I was thinking ‘how am I going to get Darren out of here?’”
Darren, aged 27, is unable to respond or move, so although the fire procedure said all visitors should leave the hospital, the distressed mother felt she could not do so. “I didn’t want to leave him,” she said.
She waited at the top of the ward. “I knew then they were rushing the bed up past me. I went with them as far as I could," she said.
“They had Darren racing up in his bed; everything was so fast.”
Nurses accompanied her to an exit and she was handed over to staff outside. “They were so kind; they knew I was in such a state. I was so heartbroken," she said.
Ms Corrigan said she did not know what to expect as she watched fire engines, ambulances, and gardaí arriving.
“It was like I was just looking at a movie. I kept saying ‘oh God, who is with him? I wonder what is happening,” she said.
Even in her distress, while standing in the car park as the fire burned and smoke billowed, she noticed other patients struggling to cope, especially elderly patients.
She only left the car park at 7pm, having been reassured by several staff that Darren was being looked after.
“I was only in the door when I got a call to say he was transferred to Waterford,” she said. “About an hour later, I got a call from the hospital in Waterford, that they had received him. It was so reassuring because as a parent I was like ‘how will I know where he is?’ He’s a complex patient.”
Speaking to the as she travelled to Waterford yesterday, she said: “The staff couldn’t do anything more. Thanks be to God everything went according to their plans.”
Doctors in both hospitals have kept in touch with her.
“Just little things that matter. They are under severe pressure and that they are able to do that for parents is so remarkable,” she said.
Darren was placed on a day ward and was expected to be moved to a specialist ward later.
The drive of over an hour each way is now the family’s daily routine until Wexford hospital reopens.
“I’m just so happy Darren is safe,” Ms Corrigan said.
