If I could get a helicopter to mum’s floor I would... I just really want to give her a hug
Loved ones desperate as HSE urges caution
AN abundance of hugs await 86-year-old Eily Dunlea when lockdown is lifted at her nursing home, her daughter has said.
Tracy Dunlea, 48, told how the toughest thing for her is not being able to see her mother – who she normally visits four times a week.
She added that mother-of-seven Eily, who is originally from Blackpool in Cork, has dementia but is being well looked after at Care Choice in the Montenotte area of the city.
Tracy said: “I’m very close to my mam as I have no kids, whereas my siblings do. I have spent the last five years going up to and putting her to bed every second night.
“I really just want to give her a hug but it’s not looking good for doing that anytime soon.
“There’s no Covid in the nursing home despite it being a huge building, three-storey high.
“We were supposed to have 10 minutes next week with her out the front of the home but that’s been cancelled now because they just don’t want to take the chance of Covid entering the building.
PEACE
“If I could get a helicopter every night up to the third floor I would but I believe they are making the right decision and putting her health and those of others first.
“What’s keeping me going and putting my mind at peace is how well she’s being looked after and how great the staff are with her.”
Meanwhile, Breda Mcdonald from Cobh, Co Cork, is just hoping her mother Maureen Gannon, 95, lives through the lockdown after suffering a recent health scare.
She told how the mother-of-six, who is at St Brendan’s Community Nursing Unit in Loughrea, Co Galway, pulled through and she was able to speak to her on Facetime thanks to the amazing staff who organised it.
Breda said: “She had a turn a few weeks ago. She recovered and is fine now. I got to see her and speak to her afterwards which was great.
“My prayer is that she will live through this and we will be able to be with her.
“She’s a real Irish mammy and loves giving hugs and I can’t wait to give her one.
“Just last New Year we all went to visit my mam, including my brother who was over from Australia. My mam has cognitive impairment so she doesn’t always know us when we visit but she said it made her so happy as she got to see us all together. “What I loved about her saying that was in the midst of all the confusion she recognised us all there.” Mary Mckenna, whose 81-year-old mother Anne has Covid-19 but is not showing any symptoms, has dementia yet recognises her lovedones when they visit. She said: “I’m very sad as I haven’t seen my mam in eight weeks. The staff have been very good.
“They have been sending pictures and videos and telling us that they are caring and loving her for us as we are not there and I really appreciate that.
“I’m dying to see her, I miss her so much.
“I can’t thank the staff at my mam’s nursing home enough, they are not paid enough money but are doing an amazing job. They are giving our loved ones hugs and kisses for us.
“My mam does not know my name and can’t ask the staff to ring me but there are a lot who can. That is the only thing keeping some people going.
SELFISH
“I could be selfish and just walk in to see my mam but it’s not safe and until things are secure it can’t be done.”
Michael Guerin, whose mother Mary, 80, is at Abbot Close Care Centre in Co Limerick, said staff have been phenomenal, going above and beyond in this tough time.
He added: “I couldn’t speak highly enough of them. They treat my mam like one of their own family members.
“The staff have been a tower of strength and have given people like me great comfort in knowing their parents are being well looked after.”
But Michael admitted he worries that his mother, who has dementia, thinks he has abandoned her.
He said: “She can’t grasp the significance of it all. It worries me as I fear she might think I have left or abandoned her.”
Earlier this week, the HSE’S advisor on older people Dr Siobhan Kennelly
said when nursing homes reopen to visitors it must be done carefully.
She added: “It needs to be done in a careful way to minimise risk”.
It comes as the Health Information and Quality Authority call for health officials to begin talks about reopening nursing home to visitors as they fear elderly residents could “die of loneliness” rather than coronavirus.
Tadgh Daly, chief executive of Nursing Homes Ireland – which represents privately-owned homes around the country – said same-day Covid-19 test results would be required before they could reopen to visitors.
He added: “We didn’t move as a sector to restrict visitors lightly and equally we shouldn’t move lightly to lift restrictions.”
At the moment, there is no set date for easing the lockdown at nursing and care homes around the country.
Dr Tony Holohan, the State’s chief medical officer, said the rate of transmission of the virus in homes had slowed.
CONFIDENT
People over 75 have accounted for 78% of the 1,467 Covid-19 deaths to date, with 798 – or 54.4% – from nursing homes.
The Government are confident of moving to phase one tomorrow, which allows for an easing of some measures.
Up to four people who don’t live in the same household can meet outdoors as long as they socially distance. However, people over 70 must still cocoon in their homes. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said last week measures must be introduced to help those most at risk in nursing homes.
He added: “We need to consider moving away from newly-built 150 to 200-bed single-room nursing homes towards smaller units like we’ve done in the disability sector and also re-examine clinical governance.
“There are lots of examples of good practice – we need to identify them and mainstream them and this will be a challenge for the new Government.”