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“Ladies and gentlemen, I have got problems.“I’m blind, I’m paralysed, I’m bald and I’m from Northern Ireland.”
MARK POLLOCK, THE adventurer who has conquered some of the world’s toughest marathons despite being blind, admits that he has problems. Having gone blind, he was subsequently paralysed after an accident.
Either one of those problems would keep many people down, but Pollock is excited about the possibilities, not held back by his problems.
Last month, Pollock told his incredible story at the TEDx Hollywood event, hoping to raise awareness of needs to be done to help people in wheelchairs.
He has become the world’s leading test pilot of Esko Robotic Legs.
In the talk, Pollock talks about his blindness, his paralysis and being “genuinely broken”.
“For the next 16 months, I was in hospital and found out about the real, obvious problems of paralysis.”
However, he is far from broken now. He says he was inspired by former Superman actor Christopher Reeve and how every day he goes to the gym to walk “thousands of steps” in his robotic legs.
He has now taken 300,000 steps in the legs. He goes on to talk about the research that is ongoing and calls on people to get involved.
The talk is uplifting, inspiring and moving.
Take 13 minutes and watch it.
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9 years to see a Urologist in Waterford.
@paul kelly: That’s taking the pi$$
@paul kelly: leo wouldn’t believe that now if he heard it, coming especially from waterford. He said as much a few months ago.
Cataract surgery waiting lists is ridiculous, maybe the government need to contact sight savers all over Africa doing this simple quick operation on how best to do it.
Or maybe we could just continue the circle of health getting totally out of control (we are there now) and watch on as the government offer up the head of the minister who took the poisoned chalice fully knowing that he/she will be looked after following the inevitable outcome and go on to do very well for themselves. Maybe even finding themselves giving out on behalf of the public about the new minister who received the chalice in full knowledge that they will be looked after. The cycle needs to be smashed
@Tommy C: we have one of the best funded health services in the world. Something very wrong with the HSE.
@Tommy C: more like circle of death by the time you are called for a operation.
@TRUMPS#BLIMP: Metrics used by HSE are daft.
Trolleys as a metric of waiting lists is wrong as it measures inputs.
You must measure the outputs of each and every HSE process …
Procedures per day per unit staff (10 or 100 or x staff .. whatever the international benchmark is …)
8 per day in UK NHS
6 per day in Irish private hospitals
4 per day in Irish public system
A few process specialists could solve this by reduction of number of handoffs, reduce in inter handoff dead times, …. there are experts who know how to fix the dreadful Irish health care system waiting lists …
Procedures per day as a key metric is a must to reduce waiting lists. HSE have enough money … 11% of GDP v 9% for other countries.
Go private, that’s the FG way.
@Dave Doyle: If you pay you get the service. Nothing to do with politics. He HSE does its best.
Unfortunate sentence that cataract patients waiting for surgery *see* waiting lists blah blah…. if the waiting list are so long they’ll see bugger all by the time they get a slot. Where is the editor?
That’s because we don’t have enough staff or funding. Every section of medical staff is going abroad for better money and better working conditions. Our hospitals are like cesspits. The HSE needs to be torn down, all the dead weight disposed of and a new, non corrupt organisation put together. There’s still far too much nepotism and corruption in the HSE, this means someone’s mate is getting the job over the right person, the most qualified and experienced person.
“That’s the standard technique of privatization: defund, make sure things don’t work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital.”
Noam Chomsky,
Should of seen this coming
Patients on waiting lists don’t cost any money. It’s that simple.
This is dangerous and upsetting. Being on a waiting list with the HSE is like awaiting a prison sentence.
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