31-year old Czech national Milan Hosek had part of his ear bitten off in a recent attack.
A Czech couple living in Ireland since 2003 will discuss the racism they have encountered and two brutal attacks that occurred in the recent past in a new documentary series on RTÉ2 on Thursday night.
In tonight’s episode, footage shows Milan Hosek being treated in the Mater Hospital’s emergency department, having carried the severed part of his ear in the hope that surgeons could reattach it after it was bitten off in a racist attack on the street in Dublin.
Milan tells viewers that he was attacked by two men who started abusing him, saying things like: “F**king foreigners in our country”.
“I felt really bad when the guy started spitting at me and telling me I’m a foreigner in his country,” Milan says.
One of the men involved in the attacked urged his companion to “bite” Milan’s ear off before they attacked him, with the men telling Milan they knew where he lived, which prompted him to ask the Gardaí to watch his family home.
Both men ran off after the incident.
In the episode, Dr Sinead McArdle, Consultant in Emergency Medicine at the Mater Hospital tells viewers that “to remove a part of someone’s body and the force required to take the whole pin of an ear would be unusual”.
Milan also describes an incident where his wife was attacked when she told two men having sex in front of her home at 6pm to move.
“They started being vulgar and aggressive,” Milan says.
“As she was coming back she got smashed against the wall and beaten up. With her fists, she was just able to protect the baby but not herself.”
Clip via RTÉ2
Both incidents happened within a 20-day period to Milan and Joanna, who opened up a bicycle shop in Dublin city centre after moving to Ireland in 2003.
Describing her experience of living in Dublin, Joanna says that “it always has been racist”.
A four-part series, Trauma investigates the intense and high-pressure world of trauma and medical emergency in Ireland, highlighting the collaborative, high-risk and exceptionally skilful work carried out by the medical teams.
Four hospitals – the Mater Hospital, neuro-trauma in Beaumont Hospital; emergency care in St. Vincent’s Hospital and orthopaedic trauma and emergency in the Adelaide and Meath (Tallaght) Hospital – the National Ambulance Service and the Dublin Fire Brigade and several patients will feature as the series sheds light on the 1,600 ‘major’ traumas (traumas with potential to cause prolonged disability or death) annually in Ireland.
Thursday night’s episode will also feature broadcaster Ronan Collins and his need for emergency surgery, as well as a 75-year old swimmer at risk of potential organ damage after a near-drowning incident at Dollymount Strand and a ladies footballer unconscious and unable to move her back after a clash and fall during a match.
The first episode of Trauma airs on RTÉ2 tonight at 9.30pm.
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