We only found out Daddy had Covid minutes before he died
PENSIONER John Keegan had his funeral planned to the last detail and had even paid in advance for the tea and sandwiches that would be served after he was laid to rest.
His instructions were clear. He did not want to die alone. He wanted to be buried in his best suit. And he wanted everyone to gather at the local community centre in his hometown of Cloghan, Co. Offaly, to reminisce about happier times.
But instead his six sons and five daughters are haunted by how their father died at the Midland Regional Hospital in Tullamore from Covid-19. And they have many questions as to why they were not given the proper personal protection equipment (PPE) to prevent them contracting the deadly virus that has claimed 137 lives here.
John’s daughter, Olive Tierney, who is in self-isolation after spending her father’s final days alongside him, explained: ‘I just can’t get it out of my head that Daddy has gone to heaven wearing a T-shirt and a nappy. This is what’s killing us all.
‘My dad arranged his own funeral about three years ago and he had paid for everything. He wanted to be buried in a suit. Instead he was buried in a T-shirt and a nappy.
‘I was in the room with him in the hospital when he died. He loved music and we were listening to Bette Midler singing From A Distance and I was holding his hand under the blanket when a nurse called me out and told me that Daddy had Covid-19.
‘I went back into the room. I was crying with the tears running out of my eyes and I told him: “Daddy I have to go, I’ll see you later.”
‘His colour changed in seconds. The nurse came into the room and said he had passed. Myself and my sister Geraldine were allowed in to say our goodbyes and it was then we were given the long-sleeved gowns. We didn’t know how to get into them... an assistant helped us.
‘Before that, when Daddy was alive, we were given masks, gloves, white plastic aprons and some of us were given goggles. But some of the family went into the room without goggles because there weren’t any left. After we said our goodbyes myself and Geraldine went down to the coffee area and told the rest of the family.
‘Not one of us was told what to do, whether we should go into isolation. We weren’t gowned up properly. What is good enough for doctors and nurses should have been good enough for us. We just feel we weren’t treated right.’
‘We weren’t told that we should self-isolate’
Olive’s dad John had a variety of health problems including the lung condition COPD, heart failure and kidney failure, and he had been in hospital for six weeks when he died on March 22.
The 79-year-old was tested for Covid-19 five days before he died. His family insist a positive test result was given to them just 10 minutes before he died.
Recalling her father’s degeneration, Olive said: ‘We were wearing masks, gloves, and white plastic aprons. We had goggles but the tears were falling from my eyes and they were steaming up. Daddy was saying he wanted to go home.’ Less than 24 hours later, John was dead. And instead of his 11 children standing united shoulder to shoulder in the front pew at his funeral Mass in
Cloghan, they found themselves standing apart, wearing masks and gloves.
Olive said: ‘After the Mass we all drove out in our cars and met the hearse on the road. One of my sisters didn’t go to the church. She followed the hearse as it made its way to the graveyard.
‘Daddy’s neighbours stood at their front doors and even though the local GAA club wanted to do a guard of honour, they couldn’t. They put two flags up at the graveyard... Daddy would have been so proud. But it was horrible to see the undertaker wearing a mask and a gown.’
This weekend Olive and her brothers and sisters are urging people to observe the stay-at-home restrictions and to be vigilant about hand washing and social distancing.
‘We would not like any other family to go through what we have gone through. Some of our family are worried because they did not have goggles and we would ask people, if they are going in to see a loved one with Covid-19, make sure they are in the proper equipment.
‘We would ask them to listen to the rules.’
The Midland Regional Hospital did not respond to a request for comment.