It could be your family next time
Renewed calls for cath labs in wake of man’s ‘unnecessary’ death on way to Cork hospital
A SENIOR Fine Gael TD said last night that people in Sligo and surrounding areas fear heart patients could die due to a lack of cardiac treatment centres.
Fine Gael TD and Assistant Whip Tony McLoughlin said yesterday that medics and politicians have long been campaigning for a cardiac catheterisation laboratory, or cath lab, in Sligo University Hospital to save people the arduous 139km – 1 hour 53 minute – journey to Galway University Hospital for heart treatment.
This comes as the sister of a man – who died while being transported from Waterford to Cork because the cardiac centre was closed – says if he had fallen ill during work-hours he might be alive today. Instead, the Power family are today marking one week since
‘If it was a weekday he would still be alive’
Thomas died.
In the southeast, the issue has long been a political football, with medics writing to then-health minister Leo Varadkar since 2014 about pressures on the service and independent TD John Halligan threatening to bring down the government last year.
In the northwest, calls for better services have also been growing. At present, patients in parts of Donegal are brought across the border to Altnagelvin in Derry when they have a heart attack. However, the rest of the region must travel to Galway for emergency treatment.
Mr McLoughlin said yesterday: ‘We would be worried something similar could happen here. People have been transported from Sligo to Galway and survived but we would be worried about someone dying.
The distance between, say, north Sligo or Leitrim and Galway would be similar to that between Cork and Waterford – or further in some cases.’
Deputy McLoughlin said he raised this issue at the parliamentary party meeting on Wednesday, and was assured the proposed national review would include a review of cardiac services in the northwest.
This review was announced by Health Minister Simon Harris following outrage over last week’s tragedy. A spokeswoman for the minister said the promised review would ‘seek to ensure that as many patients as possible have access on a 24/7 basis to safe and sustainable emergency interventions following a heart attack’.
Thomas Power, 40, was brought to Waterford Hospital by his pregnant wife Bernie on Sunday morning, suffering with chest pains. He was sent by ambulance to Cork – a trip reported to have taken more than 2.5 hours – as the cath lab in Waterford only operates Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, unlike other public hospital cath labs, which are 24/7.
Speaking to the Irish Mail on Sunday, his sister Catherine, said: ‘Our lives have stopped. We have nothing else to live for now. If only he’d had the chest pains during the week; then he’d be in hospital now and we’d be in visiting him.’
Quick access to treatment for cardiac patients is vital, said Heiko Kindler, consultant cardiologist at Cork’s Bon Secours Hospital and clinical lecturer at University College Cork. He said, medically speaking, time is of the essence.
‘Ultimately, from the point the diagnosis is made, getting people through the door of the hospital within one and half hours or 90 minutes is the goal-post. Minutes mean muscle, every minute you waste is a problem,’ he explained.
Last year’s now-controversial review of cardiac services in Waterford by Professor Niall Herity – carried out in response to political pressure – found that while the cath lab hours at Waterford Hospital should be extended, the lab should focus only on elective procedures.
The report recommended that patients continue being sent to Cork in the case of an emergency, using helicopters when necessary to ensure treatment within the crucial 90 minute timeframe.
Medics at the hospital and politicians, including Mr Halligan, have rejected the report’s findings.
The solution now offered of setting up a mobile cath lab and doing another review is not good enough, said local Sinn Féin TD David Cullinane: ‘My concern is, firstly, the reviews will be based on the same figures in the Herity Report, so we will get the same answers. The hospital has told me the mobile lab will be installed in late September. The review will take place four to five months after that, so we are looking at a year and there is no guarantee
‘Every minute you waste is a problem’
with that timeframe.’ A spokesman for the HSE confirmed the tender process for the mobile lab only began on June 19.
Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act show Waterford cardiologists writing to former health minister and now Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, warning of the rising numbers of patients at the lab in 2014 and 2015. Graphs show that 18 patients suffered heart attacks while on the cath lab waiting list. Another shows cardiac patient numbers climbing steeply.
Campaigner Hilary O’Neill – coorganiser of protest marches, including one on Friday outside the hospital – said: ‘I call on all the politicians and doctors in the region to support this campaign. It’s in all our interests. It doesn’t matter if you have expensive health insurance; it won’t help you on a Saturday.
‘That family have been left without their husband, brother and he never got to meet his baby. That is an unnecessary death.’
A spokeswoman for Gerry O’Dwyer, head of the South/South West Hospital Group said: ‘The CEO extends his deepest sympathies to the family of Mr Thomas Power. The South/South West Hospital Group has full confidence in the quality of care, staff and services at University Hospital Waterford.’
The Power family, meanwhile, have spoken out about their heartbreak in the hope that nobody else suffers a similar fate to Thomas.
‘Something must come from this. You want to feel that this was not in vain,’ said Catherine. ‘I’m asking the politicians here – and people like Leo Varadkar and Simon Harris – to back me, to make this happen.’
She added: ‘There are half a million people here in the southeast and so many tourists come here. Why would you come here? If you have a heart attack up the Greenway at the weekend, you are not going to survive. People need to get behind this – it could be your family next.’