Irish teacher living with ‘world’s most painful condition’ after classroom injury

Sophie Cole suffered the injury following a classroom incident.

Sophie Cole is at risk of losing her income after she was diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) in 2022 after suffering an injury from a school-based incident.

Permanent nerve damage was done to her arm as she hit it on a steel-reinforced table in the incident which occurred in the classroom.

The Special Needs Assistant teacher, who is no longer able to use her left hand, said the pain feels like someone is holding her hand into an ‘extremely hot fire while rubbing it back and forth over a really large cheese grater'.

Speaking on Cork Red FM's Neil Prendeville show, Ms Cole said she has lost her life as she knew it before the injury. 

"Complex regional pain syndrome is known as the world’s most painful and incurable condition. It’s a chronic pain disorder that affects your nervous system, and nothing at all can touch off my left hand. I suffer excruciating, burning pain, electric shocks, shooting pain. I scream with the pain daily," she explained. 

Ms Cole continued: "I lost my independence. There’s so many times when I rely on someone else to cut up my food or even shower me. I lost a lot of my social life, my ability to sleep and of course, the big one here because this is what we’re campaigning for, I lost my income."

Although Ms Cole has been receiving a weekly illness benefit payment of €220 per week, she has been denied invalidity and therefore won’t have an income for the 17 weeks her appeal will take to complete.

She said she was 'oblivious' to leave having an expiration date and assumed she was 'medically certified to be out of work due to the injury'. 

"Until I got a letter in the post, and it was stating that my sick leave was due to expire, so then I made some phone calls and rang around and discovered that I was only entitled to three months of leave.

"For three months I got my wage as usual, and then I moved to my sick leave day and I had never used a sick day, so I had my full sick leave entitlements, and then I went to half pay and then to the State €220," she commented.

A GoFundMe page has been set up by the woman's friend aiming to raise enough funds to cover her medical expenses, home adaptions and possible future treatment plans. 

So far, €7,000 of the €20,000 goal has been raised. 

In an update to the page, it reads: "Your generous contributions, no matter the size, will make a significant difference in Sophie’s life. Together, we can provide her with the necessary resources to manage her pain, regain some independence, and pursue treatment options that may help her in her recovery.

"Thank you for supporting Sophie Cole during this challenging time. Your kindness and compassion means the world to her."