Very sad news from Cork.
Speaking to radio host Neil Prendeville on RedFM this morning, a Cork man told the story of how his mother passed away in the A&E of Cork University Hospital, as there were no beds available.
Steve’s mother Evelyn, who had just turned 70, was suffering from multiple sclerosis, and he had come home from Australia to provide care for her.
“Neil, I lost my mother who I cared for 14 years 2 weeks ago in CUH emergency department,” Steve said. He detailed the wait for the ambulance and the crowding at the hospital, which saw his mother left in the corner of an A&E. Steve had briefly gone home to shower when he received the phone call that his mother had died.
After returning, Steve was brought to see his mother on a bed in a public ward where she’d been brought after she had passed.
“The fella in the bed next to her was trying a pick a new ringtone on his phone. It wasn’t his fault. The priest came in to say a prayer and people were constantly putting there head around the curtain looking for different people. People sticking their heads in looking for people, around the curtain.”
Steve said that even after a priest had come in to say a prayer that “at least four or five people” stuck their heads around the curtain. “All I wanted to do was be there with my mam. The thought of all this hustle and bustle and noise, curtains opening, people’s heads sticking in…
“I’ll never forgive them. I mean the system. People deserve so much better than to be treated like that in their final moments. This is how Irish people are being treated in their last moments.”
A spokesperson for Cork University Hospital said: “Cork University Hospital does not comment on individual patient cases.”
As recently as Tuesday, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation reported that 679 people across Ireland were waiting for hospital beds.
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