DUNDALK LADY THANKS MEDICS IN HOSPITALS
A Dundalk woman has spoken out to defend the staff of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda and to thank them for the excellent care and attention she received when she suffered a heart attack.
Bernadette Hearty, Ashbrook suffered a massive heart attack on Wednesday, August 30 last and was treated in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital and the Mater Hospital in Dublin.
‘Maybe I was just lucky, but I have to say that the care and attention I got was excellent and I just want to thank everyone from the paramedics to the nurses and doctors’.
This is the second time that Bernadette has been treated by hospital medical staff and her first experience four years ago was similarly positive.
‘I am fed up listening to people giving out about the health system, I am just an ordinary person, I don’t have private medical insurance and the care I got was second to none’.
Recalling her experience, Bernadette said she went to bed on Wednesday, August 30 feeling unwell and woke at 2.30am.
‘I was sitting on the stairs and told my adult daughter that I would go back upstairs, but we called the ambulance and within five minutes, I had three paramedics looking after me’.
‘I said to them, there’s enough of you, but they were great at keeping me calm and walked me to the ambulance’.
‘From calling the ambulance at 4am, I was in intensive care by 6am with the ECG, blood tests and x-ray all done’.
Bernadette was told that there was a cancellation in the Mater Hospital and by 7.10am she was in a private ambulance on route to Dublin.
‘I had the angioplasty done by Hugh McCann’s team and I met Dr McCann himself later and he was excellent’.
‘I was told that I was a lucky girl and there is no damage, but I had, had a massive heart attack which was stress related’.
Bernadette returned to the Lourdes Hospital later than afternoon and remained in hospital for two days, during which time further ECGs and x-rays were carried out to ensure she was ready to be allowed home.
‘It really annoys me when I hear people giving out about our health system. I know it can be hard to get into the system, but once you are being cared for, the quality of the care and the staff are just excellent’.
‘From the paramedics right through to Rita Mulligan, other nurses and Dr McCann and Dr Keelan, everyone was just brilliant in looking after me’.