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Eighteen days, seventeen nights.
Two falls, two smashed windows.
ON THE JUNE bank holiday weekend, my 81-year-old father was brought to Our Lady of Lourdes hospital, Drogheda by ambulance after a fall at home in Dundalk.
He was found on the bedroom floor by my mother at 7am on the Friday. Dad was wedged between his bed and the door, confused and unable to get up. He may have been lying there for hours.
Dad received a diagnosis of mixed dementia – vascular and Alzheimers – after an MRI in April but we had been aware for some time that he was suffering from more than just age-related memory loss. It’s a callous disease for anyone but for a life-long reader unable to retain the paragraph he’d just read to the point that picking up a book became a taunt, it’s particularly cruel.
My 83-year-old mother had been caring for him at home with some relief from me on the weekends. My sister and Mum had been going through all the care options – the twice-weekly home care assistants had just started and looked to have struck up an immediate rapport with Dad, but then he fell. We had been expecting something like this to happen. But not yet.
He spent a day in the Emergency Department being thoroughly examined, ruling out any injury, but on discovering a kidney infection, he was moved upstairs to the dementia ward that night. Dad spent a further 17 days there.
The ward layout is similar on each level, so I was brought back to 2019 when Dad was two floors below in Endoscopy after a stomach bleed followed by a heart attack.
This time, his shared room afforded a bird’s eye view of Millmount Tower and the church steeples on either side of an invisible Boyne. Out on the locked balcony, the seagulls harmonised with approaching sirens. My father’s first roommate was a harmless but inquisitive walker in his 90s who liked to stand behind Dad’s chair and trace delicate fingers across his bald pate, mussing the fine strands of hair. When it came to the issue of visitors’ seating arrangements, this bundle of pent-up energy would happily haggle with you over the price of chair rent he thought appropriate.
From down the hall in the women’s room, peals of irresistible mirth abruptly switched to screams of ‘You’re hurting me!’ followed by a string of salty epithets any self-possessed fishwife would be proud of. A nurse reassured Dad that the woman was not in fact being manhandled, but was just a little sensitive to being touched.
The roommate’s man-nappy often failed to house a bulbous swollen testicle whose cantaloupe weight encouraged him to sit on Dad’s bed to take a load off. After 10 days of no visitors, he got drafted by a nice lady from a nursing home called Castleross, which I misheard as Castle Rock. As long as Annie Wilkes from Stephen King-town wasn’t in charge of podiatry and the lending library, I thought, he’d be fine.
Amid heavier security than pre-Covid, the ground floor communal areas felt like an Existential Airport. Destinations: Life, Death and Somewhere In Between. Departure times varied. Arrivals were every other minute.
On the west wing of the sixth floor, the level of care and empathy on display was especially heartening. These kind people had either been selected for their professional patience or had learned it on the job. They are, after all, dealing with a walking wardful of incontinent kleptomaniacs. I write this in the knowledge that the description awaits us all, and with the explosion of Alzheimer’s cases, sooner than we may think. Despite the cramped conditions and the sweltering temperatures in Dad’s south-facing room during a mini-heatwave, the daytime care was excellent. Nighttime however was a different story.
An elderly patient’s family is warned at every turn that the staff can’t prevent falls, and so it comes to pass. Dad fell twice during the night shifts, sustaining nasty cuts on the back of his head, bruises and a skinned elbow and lower leg. The anti-anxiety medication prescribed made him very drowsy, which may have contributed to his failed co-ordination.
We certainly noticed the difference in his alertness and ability to walk steadily, from before he was given the Quetiapine which they couldn’t give him until after the antibiotic had run its course, and afterwards.
After the first fall, we begged for a ‘special’ one-to-one carer to keep an eye on the room overnight. It wasn’t allocated. Then he fell again.
The resources just aren’t there to watch every patient over 24 hours. Everyone understands that. It’s just hard to watch it unfold when it’s your own disoriented loved one tottering along the hard floors of an unfamiliar environment looking for a toilet at 3am.
Dad’s new roommate was an urbane conversationalist, Olympic hall-walker and serial escapee who like his fellow dementia-sufferer in the bed opposite had no idea why he was being held there against his will. He claimed to have been expelled from his last nursing home for smashing a window. It turned out this wasn’t a brag but his modus operandi.
In Dad’s final week, his roommate shattered a window in the room by ramming a wheeled meal table through it. Two nights later, he did it again, this time with a heavier TV stand. A young security guard assigned after the first incident struggled with him but failed to restrain him from his goal.
When two of the witnesses have memory retention problems and both were groggy from anti-psychotic PRN medications, it’s impossible to ascertain how traumatic or disruptive this may have been for both of them beyond marking my father’s agitation, exhaustion and out-of-character tears when we arrived.
One element you try to avoid around dementia patients is sudden, loud noises. Imagine how shocking the sound of a heavy piece of wheeled furniture smashing through the window of the room you’re sleeping in might be. Twice.
Over the weeks, we repeatedly requested that Dad be moved to a step-down ward in Dundalk for a two-week respite so that my mother, herself suffering from back pain due to long-term injury, wouldn’t have to make the daily journey up the motorway.
Dad’s discharge had been delayed by a urinary infection that had to be treated and then by heart issues – his usual high blood pressure unhelped by the environment and then bouts of low blood pressure from not drinking enough fluids. He had been on a drip at the beginning of the saga but kept wanting to pull it out. It later transpired that a major holdup on the move was that the consultant who makes the discharge decisions was on holiday.
On the Monday after the second window breakage, we informed the discharge coordinator that we were concerned that Dad was not safe there, and like a magic incantation, the words ‘not safe’ unlocked the administrative wheels and Dad was moved that day.
We followed the taxi that took him, strapped into a wheelchair in the back, to the Dundalk step-down ward.
Even though it was supposed to be a two-week respite to give us time to organise permanent care for him, after Day 1, we were under sustained pressure from both HSE locations to find him a permanent bed in a nursing home or find the combination of public and private home care that would give him 24-hour supervision. Again, the claim that Louth doesn’t have the staffing to shadow a wandering patient is impossible to refute.
My sister and mother had seen the care homes in the Dundalk area that Mum could manage to drive to. On the Thursday, I visited the one that had a bed for him and on the Friday we drove him there, booking him in for six weeks of respite care while we considered our options.
Our Lady of Lourdes staff did their level best to ensure a warm atmosphere for patients and their families, from the volunteer doorway greeters to the cleaners, porters, health care assistants, nurses, medical interns, doctors and consultants. If any populist election candidate ever needed a succinct reminder of the success and outright necessity of immigration to this island, they could do worse than break a bone and be tended to by the tireless Filipina nurses, Indian doctors and Eastern European Healthcare Assistants of our groaning HSE.
We are extremely grateful to all the staff of Our Lady of Lourdes, who did their very best to care for my beloved father in challenging circumstances. Yet the facts remain — two falls and two smashed windows, all on the night shift of the dementia ward. This begs the questions:
These questions are not posed to the staff we met but to CEO of Health Service Executive (HSE), Bernard Gloster.
Nick McGinley is a freelance writer, voice-over artist, performer, casting director and workshop leader.
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Have you seen what comes off the Ryanair flights from Manchester for the hen weekends. Full of weapons. Can somebody please stop them
@Dave Doyle: what comes off the ryanair planes for the weekend dont terrorise murder and massacre innocent babies and children with the help of irish taxpayers money. Shame on the irish regime and terrorist supporter vradkar and all his lackeys
@jon-boy55: good man johnny.saving the world one post at a time.
@Red hurley: In fairness, it’s better than smugly posting redundant condescending snark from behind an anonymous profile, it’s a moral issue and he’s entitled to his opinion. Take the piss out of him for being a keyboard warrior if you want, but at least his comment has more fibre to it than your desperate plea for attention
@jon-boy55: I bet a few of them might have terrorized an unborn baby of the were returning from an Abortion
@jon-boy55:
How does Irish tax payer money help to terrorist people. We charge these planes to land and we also benefit from the cost of the refueling. If anything the Irish tax payer is benefiting and not vice versa. But hey, when you are used to posting hyperbole without thinking through what you are saying it’s must be very hard to change
@jon-boy55: I think Dave was making a joke. OK? Calm down.
@Dave Doyle: I bet the government are allowing these planes to refuel at cost price & charge little or no landing fees & possibly of no financial gain to the Irish exchequer.
@Windy Atlantic Way: you bet? Or you know? Or you’re just making stuff up?
(Maybe you should try to find out)
@jon-boy55: no the Manchester weapons just terrorise me and other lads out for a quiet pint. You would swear they had never seen a man before in their lives
@Brendan Gordon: ooooooooohhhhhhhh brendan youre big words hurt.xxxxx
@Red hurley: Two points:
1) They’re not big words.
2) It’s actually “your”.
Now petal, I’ll give you one more reply because I know you’re desperate for the attention but then I have to leave you to your lonely tears.
@Windy Atlantic Way: You bet ?? YOUR’E GREAT!
I dont see a problem in helping our best friend, USA.
@Séamus McCallion: Too Right Seamus. Neutrality is a cop out. You need to pick a side.
@Séamus McCallion: It’s the difference between trying to break up a fight your mate started, and handing them a knife when they’re in a fight they started. We’re a neutral country, for that position to be changed the public should be consulted. We shouldn’t be directly supporting the waging of American military action
@Séamus McCallion: I do, I think we should declare war and invade immediatly, dust down the landing craft and prep the F-16′s…lets pick a fight ! (Florida would be best, its nice and warm there)
@Brendan Gordon: Interesting analogy Brendan. Neutrality also means that if your other mate, who doesn’t start fights, is jumped on by some sc***ag you would stand back and not get involved. Nice moral stance.
@kevin: no, you still try and break it up, just not by swinging in with fists. Neutrality doesn’t mean you don’t get involved, just that you don’t take sides
@Brendan Gordon: glad you’re not my mate Brendan. I expect my friends to help me if I’m being attacked.
@Brendan Gordon: How is it taking sides, tho
@Brendan Gordon: *How is it taking sides though? The US aren’t the only country who can use Shannon.
@Malachi: See my earlier comment . It’s handing them their knife. It’s supporting violence against another country. It’s not something we should be involved in without public consent.
@Séamus McCallion: The same people on here praising the US give out about foreigners in the country. isn’t US the reason for the misplacement of these unfortunate people. and the people trafficking also?
@kevin: I said a fight they started. I’m just glad I’m not your friend in general, you seem a bit simple to miss that. Regardless who started the fight only an absolute limp dick tosser wades in aggressively against someone just to do damage because they’re fighting a mate. You break it up if you can and try to get people to settle it like adults.
@Brendan Gordon: Our so-called neutrality does not appear in our constitution or our legislation.
@Johnny Bellew: Are you saying it’s not an important enough topic to warrant public debate and input?
@Séamus McCallion: Claire does, they’re not friends with Kim!!
@Brendan Gordon: That is your opinion Brendan Gordon. I do not agree. The fight is underway… period. Do you want to leave Russia expand & invade other countries at will? Crimea, Ukraine, Syria
@Brendan Gordon: Sure, but let’s stop calling ourselves neutral unless there is an official line. Neutrality can have some benefits but at other times, such as when great evils are being committed, it can be a cop-out.
@Brendan Gordon: you seem like a nice guy Brendan, despite the insult, but so was Neville chamberlain
@Johnny Bellew: That’s exactly my point, why are we pretending to be neutral. We need to discuss it publicly and decide, not do sycophantic back room deals while pretending to be everyone’s buddy
@kevin: I’m not a nice guy and you sound like an idiot. I’m not talking about appeasement or burying our head in the sand, I’m talking about our government being accountable and consulting the population on what position to take, not staying out of everything.
@Malachi: don’t I remember Russian flights on route to Cuba passing through Shannon? I suspect a weapon or two passed through then. Funny I don’t recall any moral indignation at that time. Let’s just object to US armed services passing through Shannon. There are multiple alternatives as per business or military requirement. Make up your mind which way you want it? I am sure we can accommodate your preference. Can you afford the consequences?
Every plane that lands in an airport pays to land there. This money keeps the airport open and people in jobs.
@bings: Yeah, and organised crime contributes to the exchequer because criminals spend their money and enjoy lavish lifestyles so we should turn a blind eye to that too. Obviously your morals are pretty cheaply bought
@Brendan Gordon: I’m not sure your analogy quite works. Whatever your gripes with US foreign policy, the fight against ISIS (which is what Shannon is facilitating for the most part) isn’t really comparable to organised crime.
@Malachi: illegal activities resulting in innocent deaths as collateral damage, yeah I’d call that an apt analogy
@Brendan Gordon: innocent deaths… try telling that to Isis & Putin. Do you write trash on their websites hoping to influence public opinion and change their ways?
@James Maloney: Innocent deaths are the population of Syria being bombed to bits, I said collateral, if you can’t follow the thread of a short sentence you should probably do a bit of study before you dive into international affairs. As for influencing public opinion, all I want is the government of my country to be accountable for their decisions and act in accordance with the will of the people. I we are not going to be neutral that’s fine, but making special exemptions for weapons of war while pretending to be neutral is unaceptable, especially when the government has lied claiming previously that no weapons were coming through irish airports. I know you don’t have the reasoning power or polite rationale to understand that I don’t mind if things don’t go my way as long as the decisions are made in a fair, transparent and accountable way. Kneejerk neanderthals like yourself are the reason Putin’s online division are having so much success riling people around the world
@Brendan Gordon: “All I want is the government of our country to be accountable”——Do you mean that they should consult YOU every time they make a decision?
@Brendan Gordon: Brendan we are the big bad wolf in the world. Incidentally we do not require your support. We would appreciate your gratitude if not your support for the benefits you have derived from our contributions.
The island of Ireland is not neutral . Irish troops from north of the border are part of NATO and operate in war zones across the world .
@Tommy Whelan: North of the border is a different country, that’s why there’s a border, if the Republic is going to abandon our policy of neutrality, it should be because the people voted as such, not because of sycophantic government favouritism.
Neutrality is the reason Ireland made zero contribution in the fights against the Nazi,s, the Soviets and now ISIS. Irish neutrality is a disgrace which provides people like Clare Daly the illusion of a higher moral ground. Its very easy for someone who flies around on a broomstick to second guess how airports conduct their business.
@Joe Caulfield: what did the Soviets do to us? Just because the yanks had a problem with them doesn’t mean we have to.
@Joe Caulfield: You go and let you and your family get sucked into the USA war machine in their resource wars they’re conducting all over the world. I don’t want my family being dragged in to be used as sand bags or cannon fodder on behalf of the biggest terrorist organisation ever seen.
@Dave Doyle: poor drama queen stuff there.
@Joe Caulfield: joe you said it brother. Time for Ireland to grow up, take sides and contribute to mutual security. The is getting tiresome. If you play you got to pay. No more freeloading.
@Eoin Murphy: Are you serious.? Push back is on its way unapologetically. You measure the despicable Soviet behavior over 50 yrs with the millions slaughtered against what they did or not did as per the Irish? Can your moral compass include something other than personal interest? Do not put the US on the same moral plane as Stalin and his cronies.
@Dave Doyle: There you go again. I am a retired US fodder expat who was more than happy to play his part in the war against terrorism. I had the guts to act on my convections. The best you will do is mutter on against such efforts from the safety and heaven of security bought by the sweat and blood of those with the courage of their convections. Go join ISIS or the other forces threading world security and act on your convections. No free ride for you my man.
I don’t support Daly, but I recognise her as a genuine woman of conscience in her own mind.
Her priorities may be incompatible with those of most of the electorate, but we need someone making us aware of certain truths.
@alphanautica: she wanted to nationalise Dell when they moved the manufacturing to Poland…anyone who would want to do something that stupid shouldn’t be listened to
@Fergus Sheahan: Nobody would be talking about nationalising Dell if Daly hadn’t the courage to say it.
@Fergus Sheahan: what’s stupid about wanting to save jobs?
@alphanautica: your right it takes courage to say something so stupid
@Eoin Murphy: illegal takeovers of companies and stupid ideas won’t save any jobs
@Eoin Murphy:
Ironically, banning military flights through Shannon would cost jobs.
@alphanautica: Sort out her own crime infested City for her electorate,The majority of people in the midWest be more concerned with the lack of flights to continental Europe than young men and women aboard these military flights..
@Fergus Sheahan: illegal takeover of companies is what goes on in Venezuela by their socialist dictatorship, they use it as propaganda… while they destroy the country in search or their Cuban style utopia… maybe this is what she wants!
@James Maloney: i wonder is she very stupid or just clever enough to know how to exploit the stupid people who believe her clap trap?
@Eoin Murphy: Ehh? The stupidity was in thinking the Dell plant was a stand alone operation that, if nationalised, could continue to operate at a profit and employ workers. It showed her lack of understanding of the huge chain within which the Limerick plant was just one link. Outside of the Dell supply chain, as in if it was nationalised, the plant was worthless. Basic first year organisational theory stuff.
@alphanautica: Pray tell us how we could nationalise Dell? An MNE, headquartered in the US, with a few links in its vast supply chain based in Ireland. Courage to show a lack of understanding of the most basic aspects of how MNEs operate….. if a first year business student spouted such rubbish they would get an F.
Every US flight has at least one weapon on board.
Interesting that they don’t list the countries, makes you wonder why
The act refers to civilian flights, not military. Someone flying in, out or through Ireland to compete in something like one of the Olympic shooting competitions, as seen recently in the Winter Olympics, with their equipment would need an exemption.
In the absence of further data it’s difficult to tell how many of these exemptions were US troops and wouldn’t include actual US military flights.
The shame in all this is that a sitting T.D. thinks Ireland is neutral! Where in the constitution of the State does it mention Irelandp is neutral ?
@Gerry Cummins: Spot on. It is entirely up to the discretion of the government.
@colm mc sweeney: It may not be in the constitution but an issue like the country’s neutrality should not simply be down to how much the govt wants to to suck up to the states, It should be properly debated and discussed, and how we act internationally should match up to the image we present of ourselves.
@Brendan Gordon: How many of the flights were from the US? How many other countries flights had weapons? What weapons were they? A lot of detail needed before you can start any debate.
Who cares what Clare Daly thinks.
I’m no maths genius but 330 in a year is not one a day…
I wonder does anyone have any figures on what exactly it’s worth to Ireland every year.. Landing charges, Refueling & maybe a few gifts, coffee & food in the terminal. Then maybe Claire Daly & her entourage can decide whether it’s worth it or not? & if not Who will pay the employees that lose their jobs.. Department of Social Welfare I suppose?
Meanwhile Russian Bombers fly up and down the West Coast and we don’t even mention them. We should at least throw stones at them.
@Sean Gordon: they are flying in international airspace.
our neutraity sold for scraps under FF and continued under FG…
@Nigel Griffin: We don’t have a neutrality policy. That is a figment of the imagination.
@Johnny Bellew: When was that last time we needed air and naval support to repel foreign invaders?
Income from this is blood money. Exceptional work by Ed Horgan and Shannonwatch for documenting the US military, CIA and illegal “rendition” flights. The Catholic-Worker-inspired Pitstop Ploughshares 5 damaged a US Navy plane at Shannon in 2003, and convinced the jury, in 2006, that they were not guilty of criminal damage because their intervention was supported by a greater morality, and international law. Mary Kelly, and Clair Daly & Mick Wallace have done similar protests. wikileaks showed that the US was very concerned at the 2006 not guilty verdict, and received reassurances from our government that it wouldn’t happen again.
@245hkJ01: If Edward Horgan is so concerned about Shannon Airport being used by the US military why doesn’t he hand back his big military pension…
We should get 10 green cards minimum per landing tbh
Climb the fence again there claire into the airport,and your tax cheating buddy Mr Wallace and don’t forget your ladder this time!! Careful you don’t rip your dress,tax payer might have to pay to get it stitched!!
No armed planes in Shannon but ok for the PDF to join PESCO?
Perish the thought that we Irish freeloaders would do anything to help the Americans or the Brits who basically guarantee our security and have to come and bail us out, even when we have an emergency situation and need air and naval support.
They probably want us to ask Putin for help next time
I wonder if Ireland is truly neutral would they allow planes loaded with weapons from the Middle East to land and refuel in shaonnon on their way to the USA? I’m thinking No. Hey that also makes me thinks, over 300 planes going over to the Middle East from the USA and not one plane from the Middle East going over to the USA – wait I’m confused who are the terrorists? I’m lost.
As if we didn’t know this has been happening in Shannon airport for years already one of these day there will be a bomb dropped on it and that will be that end of story.
As long as they’re paying up who gives a feck. Get those dollars!
that’s a lora fuel and so a lora tax take!
Good
Did Daly pay her fine imposed for illegal entry into Shannon airport or was it docked from her wages like it would be for any member not of the politburo breaking the law .Donald Trump has his work cut out with these lefty Fidel Castro virtue signallers.
Ireland is neutral in name only.
We are not neutral in reality – we depend on a NATO power to protect us under a secret deal which the Government refuses to discuss under “national security”.
We have not signed up to the Hague Convention, neutrality is not in our Constitution, and we have never, unlike Sweden, Austria etc, paid to defend it.
We are in the PfP of NATO, our army is being trained and equipped to NATO standards, and Irish troops have served abroad under NATO command.
We are not a member of a military alliance yet we rely on foreign taxpayers to fund our defence.
What airlines make the requests? I’m guessing the single largest number of requests are airlines transporting US soldiers who carry their rifles as part of their kit. To hear the implied criticism there must hundreds of aircraft carrying anything short of nukes. Lots of buzz but no hive.
They’re like neighbors to our president, right across the street in the Phoenix Park the secret service guard an empty palace..
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