Cystic fibrosis & CUH — it’s a crying shame

The first time I saw my dad cry was as a patient in Cork University Hospital. He did not cry because he knew he was dying but because for the first time in his life he was unable to watch Cork play in an All-Ireland final.

Normally he would have gone to the game but ill-health had him confined to a bed in CUH. I arrived after the match was over, it was a draw and I was expecting a full in-depth breakdown of the game. Instead he was crying because there was no working TV in the ward and it had not been working for a long time according to the embarrassed nurse I spoke to.

Dad was buried recently and at his funeral my sister, who has a daughter with cystic fibrosis, told me about the delay in building the new cystic fibrosis unit in the hospital. She informed me that despite all the funds being raised for the ward coming from charity the hospital were now refusing to ring-fence the beds for the CF patients.