MARK’S FIGHT FOR OPERATION
A Drogheda man, who is battling a form of cancer, is in increasing pain after a vital part of his treatment was cancelled due to COVID in the hospital he attends.
Mark Russell (54) from Marley’s Lane, who was due to get a stem cell transplant in the Beaumont hospital in mid-January, has now been told they don’t know when the procedure will take place, leaving him in serious pain, and wondering when his treatment will continue.
‘Mark was diagnosed last June with multiple myeloma, which is basically bone and blood cancer,’ explains Mark’s partner Annmarie Dyas.
‘ They decided he needed a stem cell transplant as well as the chemo. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but it’s the only chance he has.’
And now that chance is fading, as the life-saving procedure was postponed.
A Drogheda man, who is battling cancer, is in increasing pain after a vital part of his treatment was cancelled due to COVID in the hospital he attends.
Mark Russell (54) from Marley’s Lane, who was due to get stem cells transplants in the Beaumont hospital in mid-January, has now been told they don’t know when the procedure will take place, leaving him in serious pain, and wondering when his treatment will continue.
‘Mark was diagnosed last June with multiple myeloma, which is basically bone and blood cancer,’ explains Mark’s partner Annmarie Dyas. ‘ He was very sick from January 2020, and they were treating him for what they thought were fractured ribs, and then they said it was broken ribs, which take ages to heal, but then one day, he was in such pain he couldn’t walk, so I called an ambulance, and when they brought him in, they diagnosed him within two days.’
In multiple myeloma, cancerous plasma cells accumulate in the bone marrow and crowd out healthy blood cells. This form of cancer is rarely fatal, however complications from myeloma can be deadly, including pneumonia, infections, kidney failure or anemia.
‘By the time they found out it was cancer, a lot of damage had already been done to the bones, and worse, he had also developed double pneumonia,’ says Annmarie. ‘It’s the effects of myeloma that kills you, and not only do you have severe damage to the bones, but you get a lot of infections too, and that is what is most dangerous.’
Mark, a farmer from Sheepgrange, was treated for his pneumonia, and when his lungs were healthy enough, he was started on chemotherapy.
‘ They decided he needed a stem cell transplant as well as the chemo, and they harvested cells from his body and cleaned them last November,’ explains his partner. ‘He was due in in January to have the treatment, which is very invasive, and they blast you with chemo, and then implant the new cells to encourage healthy growth.
‘Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but it’s the only chance he has.’
And now that chance is fading, as days before the life-saving procedure, they got word of its indefinite postponement.
‘He was due to go into the Beaumont on January 10th for a transplant on the 15th, but on the 8th, when we were packed and ready to go, they rang to say it was cancelled,’ she says, her voice cracking with emotion. ‘Mark was devastated, and when I asked why it wasn’t happening, they said it was because of COVID, and then they hit me with even more bad news when she said ‘rest assured, he’ll be back on the list’.
And that is the last thing they heard from the Beaumont.
‘I have to say the Oncology unit in Drogheda has been brilliant, and they are doing the best they can, and pushing for this and for Mark to get the vaccine,’ she adds. ‘ The myeloma is getting very aggressive now and he is in an awful lot of pain, and it’s also affecting our mental health, as he was all ready for the operation, and now he is left with a lot of time to think.’
Their big fear is now that he will stop being a good candidate for the treatment if he is left too long.
‘Physically he was in the right frame for the transplant, and my worry is if they leave it too long, he won’t be,’ says Annmarie. ‘We are totally devastated, and we are doing our best to keep his spirits up, but we don’t know if it is spreading or not, and we need to get him treated as soon as possible.’