We have cared for our daughter, now HSE won’t take care of us
I was taken by ambulance to the emergency department at CUH. I was detained overnight on a trolley in a corridor. My nearest fellow trolley patient was a 94-year-old woman with dementia. She was constantly accompanied by a relative.
Many more trolleys were strewn along the corridors and contained people of differing ages and illnesses. My trolley was not big enough to comfortably hold my large frame: I am 6’ in height, 17.5 stone in weight. Tests were done and I agreed to stay another night, following medical advice, but not on a trolley, where I was unable to sleep until 8am, when I nodded off for about half an hour.
Anybody I talked to agreed that it is impossible to sleep on a trolley in a corridor with continuous traffic. But sleep is essential for good health
A senior doctor told me I would get a bed that night. I waited the rest of the day to be transferred.
At 8.15pm, I was informed that no bed had become available. It would be Monday before definite news would be known. I informed the nurse-in-charge that I had been told by the doctor that I would have a bed. She said that promise had been between the doctor and myself.
I asked for his telephone number, but I was refused. Also, I asked to see the priority list for beds and this was refused, too. I then told the nurse-in-charge that if I didn’t hear by 9.30pm, I would leave the hospital and go home when transport was available.
No progress was made, and I duly left the hospital at 9.30pm, as I felt that a further loss of a night’s sleep would be too detrimental to my health. My 52-year-old, spastic, quadriplegic daughter, Sinead, was unwell and had to be attended to by my 77-year-old wife, Mary.
I had told the authorities that my family had suffered too much at the hands of the HSE, doctors and hospitals.
Sinead was a rhesus baby. Ten months later, she was diagnosed with severe cerebral palsy. We have taken care of her at home.
Her birth was marred by various irregularities of the State. She is still alive due to the high level of care and attention given to her by her mother, her main carer.
Sinead has suffered a great deal since 2008, due to cerebral palsy and ageing. In 2010, she had a Badofen pump implanted and has a high level of sedative medication, which causes further complications with eating and drinking. She is also doubly incontinent, and has to be bowel-managed. There are further skeletal abnormalities, in the form of a dislocated hip and a severe scoliosis.
I am convinced that the ethos of how we are governed has changed drastically. The Government, HSE etc, should be serving us in a just way, but instead display endless arrogance.
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