Tríona to leave hospital after 14 months as HSE relents on nursing care
Huntington’s disease victim to receive specialist nursing home treatment after major turnaround by health chiefs
THE HSE has agreed to move a woman trapped in hospital since December 2018 to a nursing home having refused to do so before her situation was highlighted in the Irish Mail On Sunday.
Tríona Hanly, who has Huntington’s disease, was admitted to Connolly Hospital in west Dublin with a broken wrist. Doctors said her illness was too advanced for her to return home, but they struggled to arrange HSE funding for specialised nursing home care.
This week, her husband Martin Dunne received a joyous phone call from the hospital, and he told the MoS: ‘I was a man crying in the middle of the street. Myself and the hospital manager had a good cry.’
Referring to the head of the HSE, he said: ‘The hospital had told me Paul Reid was putting the pressure on, but I didn’t believe it. I’m so grateful to the HSE for listening to me. I just want what’s best for my wife.’
The dramatic turnaround means Ms Hanly,
55, will be cared for at Bloomfield Mental Health Services, the only residential service for people with Huntington’s disease (HD) in Ireland. The charitable centre was founded by the Quakers in the 1800s.
Just weeks ago, Mairéad Lyons, HSE head of social care, insisted in a letter, seen by the MoS, that the annual cost of €187,000 could not be spared in this year’s budget. This was despite the bill being significantly less than Ms Hanly’s hospital costs at Connolly, which starts at about €365,000 just for her bed.
Mr Dunne said: ‘When she’s in Bloomfield it will be better. I was just shocked when I heard those numbers. I know it’s a lot of money but when you compare it to the hospital prices it’s hard to understand.’ Martin and Tríona have been married for more than 28 years, since meeting in Heartbreakers nightclub in
Dublin. He added: ‘Tríona is a person, she’s not just a box on some accountant’s spreadsheet. She still knows who I am, she asked me to marry her again the other day.’
Ms Hanly loved to read but is no longer able to concentrate on novels. Instead, Martin started reading poetry to her during his daily visits to the hospital ward. He reads from The Ordinary Woman And Other Poems, collected by Kathleen Watkins.
He said: ‘We had a good thing in the ward the other day. I was reading the poetry, and two of women said: “I know that poem.” So, the three of us were reading the poem to Tríona. It was a nice moment.’
Ms Hanly was a clerical worker with the health boards and then the HSE for 33 years, latterly with the HSE Civil Registration Service issuing certificates for births, deaths and marriages.
She had to stop work when the HD developed further as it affected her ability to write and concentrate.
Ms Hanly is adopted so she wasn’t aware of being a carrier for the disease.
Mr Dunne, a postman living in Carpenterstown, said his wife’s adoptive sister visits her often in the hospital. Her mother also visits when she can.
‘Her mother who adopted her is in her 90s, she’s a lovely woman, she suffers seeing Tríona,’ he added.
Huntington’s disease affects about 750 people in Ireland, with symptoms usually showing after the age of 35.