‘Health system has failed our citizens,’ says President as dying Emma pleads for him to intervene
‘Leo, Tony and Simon are like Teletubbies’ ‘I’m worried people will get away with it’ ‘Who will care for my children when I’m gone?’
PRESIDENT Michael D Higgins has said the health system ‘failed our citizens’ following an emotional appeal by terminal cancer patient Emma Mhic Mhathúna yesterday.
Ms Mhic Mhathúna, made an appeal to meet President Higgins during a radio interview on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta, yesterday.
The young mother was wrongly given the all-clear from a smear test in 2013 before eventually being diagnosed with cervical cancer three years later. Despite beating it, she was told on Wednesday that the cancer has returned and spread to her lungs. She will find out today how long she has left to live.
In an interview on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta yesterday, Ms Mhic Mhathúna appealed to President Higgins to take a stand on the matter.
‘I’d like to say to the President, if he’s listening, think about the women in your family, and ask yourself, if someone gave one of them cancer unnecessarily, what would you do? It’s unbelievable. Women of Ireland are dying; they are the daughters and mothers of this country. I have five children, Vicky Phelan has two ... how many children will be without mothers after this scandal?’
The mother-of-five also made the appeal to President Higgins after saying she had no confidence in the country’s politicians.
‘It has really upset me, because they’re all standing back and they know somebody has to take responsibility for killing the women of Ireland... I’m very angry about it. The English for our national anthem, Amhrán na bhFiann, is The Soldiers’ Song, but there’s no soldiers looking after us here... They’re like Teletubbies.
‘I have a new name for the Taoiseach, Tony and Simon – Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po, because they haven’t a clue what they’re doing,’ she added.
Speaking in Florence yesterday, President Higgins said he hoped to meet Ms Mhic Mhathúna next week to discuss her plight.
He told RTÉ: ‘It’s just, of course, a tragic, tragic, awful reality that she is facing and I will just leave it like that for the moment. And of course, there are others too, who are carrying the burden of a testing system that failed our citizens.’
Ms Mhic Mhathúna said she wants the people who are responsible for what happened to be held to account. ‘It hasn’t hit me that I am dying because I am so worried people are going to get away with it.
‘My children are going to grow up and they are going to start asking questions like, “why did Mam die?” And if nobody is held accountable then they are going to take on the hatred and the fear and I don’t want that.
‘My own daughter, she is 15, so in time she is going to be going for smear tests – a time that I am going to miss – and I want to know she is going to be safe.’
She also outlined the heartbreaking moment of having to explain to her children, that she was dying.
‘Oisín, he’s six years of age, he asked if I’d be coming back, “don’t go anywhere Mammy, do you not love me?” ‘He doesn’t understand.’ The Kerry woman, who is estranged from her husband, said she had to discuss the children’s future with them.
‘I had to ask them the awful question – do you want to be kept together... I have a very hard job now because I have five children and my father lives in England. It’s hard to find a good family for one child, but for five... . This morning,
‘They haven’t a clue what they’re doing’
Donnacha was on one side of me in the bed and Oisín was on the other, they fight over who can be beside Mammy in the morning... who will be able to take my place when I’m gone? You can’t put a price on (the importance of) my job,’ added the mother-of-five.
She told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland yesterday morning: ‘This is what makes it so heartbreaking. I’m dying when I don’t need to die... This isn’t fair,’ she said.
‘My children are going to be without me and I’m going to be without them. And I tried to do everything right and I don’t even know if my little baby is going to remember me.’