LETTER: In high praise of Bantry Hospital

SIR - WITH all the negative publicity hospitals are getting at the present, I decided to write about the other side of the healthcare system our family encountered last June. 

At the beginning of the month my mother developed sepsis. It took hold so fast it was frightening and in the space of a couple of hours she was in renal failure in HDU in Bantry General Hospital. 

It seemed unreal that she could be sitting on a chair one hour and next hour in HDU. Once tests were done we were informed that if she  survived till morning then the critical care team from CUH would come down to transfer her up to HDU there for dialysis.

I have to say that the care mom and us as a family received in the following hours was exceptional.

The doctors, nurses, specialists, matron, HCA staff, porters, food service assistants, and admin staff could not do enough for us, from offers of tea, breakfast, chairs to rest in, shoulders to cry on, every staff member that passed us in the corridors stopped to see if there was anything they could do for us. 

The HDU staff and matron spoke to us before they performed any procedure, from minor to major in treating mom, everything was explained in minute detail. 

They fought so hard for mom, the doctor said ‘as long as mom kept fighting then they would keep fighting for her’, and fight she did. 

The long night turned to morning and we were given the news that the critical care team was on route, their work continued in getting mom ready to travel and still when the Cork team arrived the Bantry staff did not leave our side, I swear some staff stayed on past their finishing time just to support us.

We were the lucky ones, mom pulled through after 36 hours of dialysis in CUH. Her month stay in the hospital began in Bantry, on to Cork city where once again the care was outstanding, and then back to Bantry before being discharged home to us.

She is our miracle and we have our healthcare system to thank for that. Our family will be eternally grateful to both hospitals for what they did. 

I guess CUH are more equipped for emergencies like this, Bantry General Hospital possibly not, but for a small hospital what they did in keeping mom alive was the highest of care any hospital could give. 

I can honestly say I don’t know where we as a family, or West Cork as a community, would be without our hospital. 

I am sure we are not the only family that feel this way, but for those who have been lucky enough not to have needed the services of Bantry General Hospital I wish to highlight just how good they really are and in what good hands you will be if a time does come that you need their services. 

We are forever grateful.

Ann-Marie McSweeney,

Skibbereen.