Bobby Kennedy with his family and pet dog - Luke, Aishling, Phily, Bobby and Emmet.

Hero's welcome home for Bobby who successfully battled Covid-19

A Nenagh man who became critically ill with Covid-19 and who spent five weeks in intensive care in hospital has returned home to a tumultuous welcome.


Father of three Bobby Kennedy (58), who lives in the Cluain Muillean estate at Tyone, was greeted by members of Nenagh Brass Band playing uplifting tunes as he arrived home on Wednesday week last. Large numbers of his extended family and neighbours, wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the words 'Welcome Home Bobby', loudly cheered when he arrived by car into the estate. 
It was an uplifting celebration of a man who had battled with death and beat it.

 

INDUCED COMA
Bobby was both shocked and moved to see the efforts to which his family and friends had gone in order to mark his homecoming. "I thought I was going to be going back into hospital with a heart attack," laughed Bobby, still looking frail after spending a total of seven and a half weeks in hospital being treated for the potentially deadly disease. 


"I went through the wringer, but luckily I came out the right side of it," he added, as he reflected on his 53 days being treated in University Hospital Limerick, including five weeks of which were spent on a ventilator and just over a fortnight in an induced coma. It started off with just a pain in my forehead, which I thought was a sinus problem. I had pains in my shoulder and my knee as well, so I rang my doctor."


Ultimately, Bobby's state of health deteriorated rapidly after he was seen in the Accident and Emergency Unit in the hospital in Limerick on April 26th. 


"I went in to hospital and after that I cannot remember a thing," revealed Bobby. "Maybe I just don't want to remember - I don't know. When I did eventually wake up in the Intensive Care Unit the nurses caring for me were telling me what I had gone through. I had been unconscious for 15 days."


Bobby's wife, Phily, said he was extremely ill when she drove him to the hospital on the day of his admission. "He was diagnosed with Covid within a few hours of admission. It was all very stressful."

 

PUT ON VENTILATOR
With his health deteriorating, Bobby was ultimately put on a ventilator as he could no longer breathe independently to stay alive. It was an extremely difficult time for Phily and the couple's three children Luke (25), Aisling (21) and Emmet (15) and all the couple's extended family and friends. Restrictions aimed a preventing the spread of the virus precluded bedside visits, but modern technology enabled Bobby's family to see and talk to him twice a day, even though he was deeply unconscious after being placed in an induced coma. 


Phily revealed the regime during this critical period entailed various bed positions. Bobby was placed lying on his stomach for 16 hour intervals and on his side or his back for eight hour periods. Phily has nothing but good to say about the nurses who cared for Bobby. "I could ring the hospital day or night. They told me I could ring at 4 o'clock in the morning if I wanted to."


Bobby agreed that it was touch and go and that he could have died. "It was very much up and down and there was lots of antibiotics and anti-viral medication involved," concurred Phily.

 

GRADUALLY IMPROVED
Fortunately, Bobby's conditions gradually improved over the weeks and medics were able to bring him out of the coma. 

"When I woke up in the ICU I was alert and I was helping the nurses when they were trying to move me in the bed. They could not believe I was so strong," Bobby revealed.


Looking back now, Bobby does not have a clue how he contracted the coronavirus. A lorry driver by profession, he was off work for some time due to the disruption caused by the virus and had spent virtually all that time at home with his family, apart from the odd shopping trip to town with Phily. There were jubilant celebrations on his arrival home last Wednesday. Bobby and Phily both come from families of 11 children and a total of 18 of their siblings - apart from the two others who for various reason just could not make it - joined with extended family in what was a truly memorable homecoming. They whooped with delight in their ‘Welcome Home Bobby’ T-shirts while they waved a huge banner made by the Nenagh Guardian as the brass band struck up a series of jolly tunes fitting of the occasion. 


Also celebrating in Saint Conlon's Home on the other side of town, where she is a resident, was Bobby's 92-year-old mother, Mary, who could not be present to personally greet her son due to the lockdown restrictions.

 

POWER OF PRAYER
Mary prayed fervently for her son to get better through every day of his illness, as did so many other family and friends and in-laws, the Feighrey family from Cloughjordan and Portumna.

"I want to thank the brass band and I want to thank all the people in Nenagh and from the parishes around who prayed for me, lit candles, sent cards and texted me," said Bobby.  "I know of lads that never went to church who went to the doors of churches to pray for me."


Asked about his current state of health now that he is Covid-free, Bobby said he had not gotten over the ill-effects quite yet. "I do still get a bit breathless, but I never lost my sense of taste or smell like some people who contract the disease do. What I am experiencing is pain in both of my hands and I was having physiotherapy for that in the hospital."