The Liberal received the following email about the staff of hospitals in Ireland:

As I stood in the middle of the Intensive Care Unit of the Tallaght Hospital, I couldn’t help noticing that the place ran like clockwork. Nurses went about like busy bees, however there wasn’t the hurried feel to it, it was more like attention to detail and simple, traditional urge to help the patient. A nurse approached a woman, who was laying there with her head shaved. The nurse didn’t see me standing there nor was she aware of my presence in the slightest.

“It’s me again love, I’m just going to take a blood sample, you might feel a pinch for a split second”, said the nurse.

That sentence brought me near to meltdown, nervous breakdown, call it what you wish, yet it also restored my faith in humanity. You see, that woman was my mother, who at that moment in time had been brain dead for over thirty six hours. Thirty six hours of not being able to feel anything, yet the nurse was still there comforting and talking to her as if she was having a full blown conversation with her.

The nurses were compassionate, gentle, kind, every possible nice word can be added here. I cannot stress the amount of times we were checked on as a family to see were we OK during this difficult time. And not only in the ICU, from the moment you walk in, a little shop on the left and volunteer cafe on right, reception, staff walking around to their destinations, the Haematology unit, they are all absolutely professional and caring staff members.

Last year, while my mother was receiving chemotherapy, a lunch lady came into the room. You can picture the scene, room full if people in pain, doom and gloom. Lady walks in, and says “did someone die here, will yas cheer up!”, and had the room in giggles and smiles remained on their faces for the day. She lifted that room in a split second, because she knew each and every person there over the years, and if a lunch lady can know the patients, you can imagine what the nurses and doctors are like. Also, Derek, one of my mum’s favourite staff members, would always give her a thumbs up and tell her to keep going on and have a seat instead of having to wait to check in, is an asset to that hospital.

And the one thing that any of these staff members over the years asked my mum was, ” are you a Muslim?” Once, on first check in years and years ago, she informed them that she was a Catholic, but this is pretty much standard, so that the PATIENT gets the care to the PATIENT’S needs.

I will be honest, I am outraged at that woman’s demands, and if she’s not happy, she’s more than welcome to go to a private hospital and pay for whoever she likes. Otherwise, if she has an issue regarding the staffing of Irish hospitals, she’s more than welcome to talk to Enda Kenny and co as to why Irish nurses and doctors are emigrating to better paid locations, while receiving excellent care from Catholic, Muslim Hindu staff etc etc…

Mario Stjepanoic
Dundalk
County Louth