Dr O’Reilly fought to save my wife’s life - now let’s fight for him
Cancer visited our home in October of last year and claimed the life of my wife, Breda, last March.
During this very difficult time, Breda was a patient of Dr O’Reilly and his medical and nursing teams at the South Infirmary-Victoria Hospital in Cork.
We as a family were blessed to have had a man of the calibre of Dr O’Reilly fighting to save my wife’s life.
He and his teams fought with great determination and with outstanding care and respect.
Here we have an outstanding doctor fighting to save the lives of people and at the same time having to fight for basic equipment and resources.
Millions of euro have been invested in a state-of-the-art maternity unit at Cork University Hospital for bringing life into the world, and rightly so, but it seems to me that cancer and dying are, so to speak, around the back and out of sight. It is an appalling indictment of our political leaders - and now an indictment of all the people of Cork for allowing this to continue. I call on all political, business and religious leaders, all public bodies, all leaders in sport and the people of Cork generally to say enough is enough.
It is time now for action and support for the great work and dedication of Dr O’Reilly.
We in Cork pride ourselves as the Rebel County - we must rebel now against the appalling state of cancer care in our region.
I sincerely hope your readers never have need of the services of Dr O’Reilly and his medical teams. But the reality is that more and more of them will need him sooner or later.
I congratulate the Irish Examiner again for giving leadership on this issue. We should all write to Health Minister Mary Harney and our political representatives.
We must demonstrate our refusal to accept this appalling state of affairs. Please keep this issue on your front page; your readers’ lives depend on it.
John Keating
23 Tiffany Downs
Bishopstown
Cork
