Shane MacGowan's sister speaks out over hospital experience of father

The sister of the late Shane MacGowan of The Pogues has spoken out after the treatment their elderly father received when admitted as a patient with a life-threatening heart condition to the largest hospital in the Mid-West.

Siobhan MacGowan says she feared so much for the life of her father Maurice - now 94, and a resident of Nenagh - that she ultimately decided to take him out of University Hospital Limerick (UHL) and drive him to a private hospital in Dublin where he quickly received the medical attention he required.

Her experience with conditions in UHL prompted her to take part with approximately 400 other people in the latest protest march in Limerick to express their opposition to the ongoing overcrowded conditions at the hospital.

Recalling the treatment of her then 89-year-old father in 2018,  Ms MacGowan said that on being “quickly” assessed in Nenagh Hospital after being referred by their GP, his heart condition was deemed serious enough for him to be transferred by ambulance to UHL.

She said her father was taken on the ambulance trolley into triage by “excellent and efficient” paramedics who placed in a long, wide corridor, which, she said, was clearly designed for just a normal seated waiting area.

“He was in a long line of patients, all on trolleys. The paramedics eventually had to take back their trolley and found Dad a hospital trolley, placing him on that. I crouched in the tight space by my father for hours trying to reassure him.

“We had arrived in the morning and it was mid-afternoon by the time I pushed through the double doors at the end of the corridor to see if I could find a doctor or nurse.

“What I saw I could not believe. It literally was like a scene from a First World War film. The hospital tents at the trenches. People of every age stretched the breadth of the room, packed up tight against the walls on trolleys.

“It was hot, overflowing, and people were dazed and groaning. The nurses behind the station were desperately trying to cope. I actually said to one of them, ‘Is this for real?’ and she nodded that it was.”

‘EXHAUSTED AND ANXIOUS’

Ms MacGowan said she returned to her father “who was exhausted and anxious and because of his slight dementia finding it hard to understand what was going on.

“In the early evening Dad’s trolley was moved to another long corridor with a nurses’ station, patients on trolleys each side with little space to move or walk down the corridor. The lights were bright and hot, and it was noisy with no chance to sleep or rest. It was hard to get Dad to the toilet or to get him food.”

While there, she said her father was asked the same questions on a number of occasions by young looking doctors who she assumed were in “trainee” posts. “I’m not sure what the  purpose was. There seemed no system.”

Ms MacGowan, a well-known local writer who lives in Dromineer, said she stayed with her father in the hospital all day until close to Midnight.

She said: “I couldn’t believe that I had to leave my father there on the trolley. He assured me he would sleep and be ok. I went back early the next morning and he was still on the trolley. He had not slept and had not been seen.

“He was very distressed by the time a doctor finally arrived mid-morning. The doctor listened to Dad’s chest and then told us that the best he could say is that Dad could possibly have his tests later that day, but he could not guarantee it.

“He then informed us that it could be three days before Dad got a bed and he would spend those days in this chaotic set-up. This was an impossible situation. Dad would not have been able to bear it.

Ms MacGowan added: “Having been assured it was safe to move him, I drove Dad to receive private care in Dublin where he was assessed quickly and given an urgent valve replacement and pacemaker operation. I was very lucky that we had this option as so many do not.”

‘THIRD WORLD CONDITIONS’

Ms MacGowan said she took part in the latest protest march over what she called “the Third-World conditions” in UHL.

She said that almost six years on since her experience with her father, the conditions in UHL were still “a nightmare”.

‘black hole’

“I know also that people are terrified of being taken to the Black Hole of Calcutta that is University Hospital Limerick A&E. The A&E itself is the accident. It is the emergency,” said Ms MacGowan.

Ms MacGowan said she felt compelled to take part in last Sunday’s week’s protest march from the Crescent Shopping Centre in Dooradoyle to the front entrance of UHL to highlight  the ongoing concerns about conditions at the region’s acute hospital. People who took part also called for the reopening of emergency departments at St John’s Hospital, Nenagh and Ennis to alleviate the intense pressure on UHL.

The march coincided with the anniversary 12 months ago of a huge march, in which over 11,000 people participated to show their anger over conditions in the hospital.