‘I’d be dead if I had waited’
YOUNG MOTHER ANGELA RECEIVED LETTER ASKING IF SHE STILL WANTED HOSPITAL APPOINTMENT 10 MONTHS AFTER HER LIFE-SAVING SURGERY
A YOUNG mother from Enniscorthy has said she would ‘probably be dead’ if she had waited for a HSE appointment after finding a lump on her breast almost a year ago,
Angela Dobbs- Gordon only received a letter from the HSE last week asking if she still required an appointment - 10 months after she decided to pay for a private con- sultation and having already undergone a successful lumpectomy operation. The 38-year-old mother-of-three said ‘its frightening for people down in this area of the country who are not getting appointments’.
‘People here seem to be waiting much longer than in other parts of the country and if I had waited the outcome might have been much different,’ she told this newspaper when speaking about her ordeal.
Angela said that if she had waited the overall outcome might have been far different and she is now encouraging other people in a similar situation to her to ensure they put pressure on the health service to get seen as early as possible.
She also says the age at which mammorgrams are offered to women needs to be changed immediately.
A young mother from Enniscorthy has said she would ‘probably be dead’ if she had waited for a HSE appointment after finding a lump on her breast almost a year ago,
Angela Dobbs- Gordon only received a letter from the HSE last week asking if she still required an appointment - 10 months after she decided to pay for a private consultation and having already undergone a successful lumpectomy operation.
The 38-year-old mother-ofthree said ‘its frightening for people down in this area of the country who are not getting appointments’.
‘People here seem to be waiting much longer than in other parts of the country and if I had waited the outcome might have been much differ- ent,’ she told this newspaper.
She said that since she posted the letter online she received a lot of messages from people who are in a similar position to her.
She only received her appointment letter, dated February 19, 2019, last week having already undergone cancer treatment as a result of not waiting and using her own initiative.
Significantly, the letter she received wasn’t even for an appointment date and instead was asking if she ‘still needed to attend’ for an ‘initial out-patient consultation’.
‘If I had waited I probably wouldn’t be here now and it’s my right so I wasn’t going to wait around,’ she said.
She discovered the lump in April last year and having contacted Caredoc she was advised to visit her own GP who in turn referred her to University Hospital Waterford for an appointment with the breast care department.
However, after hearing nothing for a number of days she decided to google breast cancer.
‘I came across a mobile phone number and I just rang it,’ she said.
‘I hadn’t a clue where the doctor was or what part of the country he was in and I didn’t care,’ she added.
‘It was a woman who answered and I explained my situation and she asked when could I meet the doctor.’
The doctor asked for a referral letter and an appointment was made to meet him at the Hermitage Medical Centre.
‘ The doctor said it didn’t look promising,’ said Angela, who at the time was also going through a relationship breakup. ‘It was a very traumatic time but I had to get through it,’ she added.
The doctor said a mammogram would be organised for that Thursday and as Angela pointed out it all happened very fast. ‘I contacted the doctor on the Friday, went up to see him straight away and had the mammogram on the Thursday.’
IT’S FRIGHTENING FOR PEOPLE DOWN IN THIS AREA WHO ARE NOT GETTING APPOINTMENTS, I WASN’T GOING TO WAIT.
The ultrasound and mammogram cost €350 but as Angela pointed out it was a matter of ‘ life-or-death’.
‘I just said yes when I found out the cost,’ she said.
‘I knew I would find the money somewhere,’ she added.
Angela was then told she would need a biopsy but it would cost around €1,200.
‘I then got put back into the public health system,’ she said.
‘Some people say that if you go private you can’t back to public but I found out that’s not the case.’
She said the treatment she received in St James’ Hospital was ‘absolutely fantastic’.
‘ They were brilliant and I couldn’t fault them,’ she said.
Angela started her treatment in May and she had an operation in November.
‘ The treatment had shrunk the tumour so I had a lumpectomy rather than a full mastectomy and I also had 20 lymph nodes removed as well.’
Angela also has a pacemaker but that had to be removed while she was going through her radiation treatment - which she finished just over a fortnight ago.
She will still have to go to St James’ oncology department every three weeks but she has been given the all-clear.
However, in addition to the delay in the public health system she also said mammograms need to be offered to people from a relatively young age.
‘ They don’t do mammograms until people are aged 52 but I was only 37,’ she said.
Angela feels that’s something that needs to be changed immediately and highlighted the ages of women who were treated alongside her to emphasise her point.
‘ There were six of us in St James’ and we were all the same age,’ she said.
‘ Well actually one of the women was younger, she was only 28, it’s getting younger,’ she added.
Angela and the other five women formed a strong bond of friendship and they remain in regular contact with each other.
‘ We’re a great support to each other because when one of us is having a bad day the others are there to help us get things back on track.’
The friends have formed WhatsApp group to help them keep in contact and they also meet up in Dublin.
Unfortunately, for one of the women who was in treatment with Angela the news was not so good.
‘For one of them the cancer is incurable and that’s hard.’
When asked what advice she would give people who find themselves in a similar position to her Angela said: ‘I would ring the hospital repeatedly and tell them you will take a cancellation and I would also go back to your GP. You know you’re own body and if at all possible find the €100 from somewhere; if I hadn’t done what I did I would have been in trouble. I’ll be on tablets for five years but the cancer is gone, they got it all in the operation.’
‘ The Hope Centre in Enniscorthy is brilliant as well, you can contact them even if you are worried,’ she added.