Heart op ‘interrupted’
O’DWYER’S heart procedure was interrupted at Waterford cath lab when a more urgent case arrived, due to the shortage of services at the hospital. Mr O’Dwyer, 76, attended the hospital on September 16, and was booked into the cath lab for a stent procedure, which is done using local anaesthetic only.
‘Everything was going well, then the cardiologist said to me they would have to stop... there was an emergency. I don’t know what it was, or who it was. They had to unhook me. They were very calm, but I never heard of such a thing happening,’ he said.