News
Dealing with the aftermath of spinal injury
Trevor Martin was a fit and healthy early retiree enjoying a round of golf when his life was changed forever.
It was the August bank holiday weekend in 2014 and the 57-year-old former regional brewery manager went off in search of a lost ball.
Unfortunately he fell into a dyke and landed on his back onto a stony patch of ground.
It was clear immediately that his injuries were catastrophic.
His central spinal cord was crushed and for three days he was a quadriplegic, unable to move any part of his body.
Trevor, from Corofin, was airlifted to University Hospital Galway but then had to be transferred by road ambulance to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin for an MRI, as the machine in UHG was not being operated over the weekend.
“I had to be intubated to be sent in the ambulance. I honestly thought I wouldn’t make it. I said my goodbyes to my wife,” he recalled this week.
While doctors waited for the swelling on the spinal cord to reduce, he was sent back to Merlin Park Hospital, where he remained for two months to recuperate.
Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon Aiden Devitt decided an operation to relieve the pressure on his spine was his best option.
A specialist spinal team to monitor the spinal cord during surgery was drafted in for the nine-hour operation. A month later, he began a difficult eight-week stint in the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dún Laoghaire, for which he was on a waiting list for nearly six months.
“It’s an absolutely fantastic place – I can’t say enough about them. It’s like going to school – you have the whole week laid out for you – physio, hydrotherapy, gym work. Thank God I’m one of the lucky ones. I learned how to walk again.”
Trevor refused to let his boys – aged twelve and eleven – see him until after the rehabilitation.
“They didn’t see me for eight weeks. There were all sorts of rumours that daddy wouldn’t walk again. When they saw me I was standing on my own. I could walk but with a stick. It was marvellous.”
The damage has left his right leg feeling like he is constantly wearing a wet suit. His fine motor skills are now poor, as the messages to and from his brain are not getting through properly.
“It’s a life sentence. People go to jail for a life sentence but they get remission – we don’t,” he reflected.
“Everything is affected. I’ve difficulty buttoning a shirt, trying to zip a jacket, opening a carton of milk, trying to read a newspaper is impossible as I can’t separate the page. It’s very awkward. Everything feels different.”
“The boys have had to adjust – dad can’t go around playing ball – they now have to mind daddy. My wife Yvonne is my best carer. She’s absolutely fantastic. I don’t know how she’s managing it.”
While Trevor has huge praise for his consultant and the team in Dún Laoghaire, he is critical of the lack of supports for patients with spinal cord injuries. Essentially, they are discharged and left to their own devices.
The odd physio appointment is arranged and he has had one visit by an occupational therapist to assess his home situation.
He has had to seek counselling to deal with the emotional outfall of the accident.
“I did get into a black hole. You sort of say to yourself: ‘you stupid eejit. All this for a feckin’ €2 golf ball’. I have good days and bad days but overall I’m in good form.”
He believes there is a real need for a regional rehabilitation centre, where the 88 patients in Galway with a spinal cord injury could go for specialised physiotherapy and additional therapies.
“Over 40% of us are on the breadline because we can’t work. We’re not entitled to job training – we’re literally ignored.”
Spinal Injuries Ireland kicked-started their nationwide awareness programme – This Is My Life – in the Galway Bay Hotel this week to highlight the key issues facing those living with the condition.
“Our awareness programme is reaching out to those living with a spinal cord injury, their families, friends and health services professionals so that we can build a community which will influence change and improve supports and services,” according to Sorcha Silke, Galway Community Outreach Officer for Spinal Injuries Ireland.
“It is acknowledged by the World Health Organisation as one of the most devastating and life changing injuries that a person can sustain.”
For further information on the “This is My Life” Awareness Programme and on support services available to those with an SCI, log onto spinalinjuries.ie
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
