An Irish cyclist's crash off his bike in an event last week has turned into an epic situation at a Dublin hospital. His story exposes the craziness of the waiting system for surgery.
A man who crashed during the bike leg of a triathlon the weekend before last has been waiting and fasting for a week for an operation on his face.
The man, identified only as ‘Barry’ on the Ryan Tubridy show on RTE Radio 1, said he needs a titanium plate in his face to fix a broken cheekbone.
He is now in his seventh day in a Dublin hospital waiting for the operation.
Each morning he has been told the surgery may happen that day. That means he has had to fast until around 8pm; until he is told the procedure will not be happening after all.
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He is allowed to leave the hospital; and does so to eat each evening after fasting all day. But if he discharges himself, and does not stay overnight, he loses his place in the queue to be operated on.
So far the fasting has seen him lose 5kg. But he says he is becoming very frustrated.
And if the saga drags on for too much longer, his bone will have knitted together a little. Furthermore, it will need to be broken again to be fixed properly with the titanium inserts.
The saga began last Saturday week when he rounded a corner on the bike leg of a triathlon in Co Wicklow.
Barry crashed into a parked car at speed and sustained injuries to his knee and face.
The 28-year-old’s knee problem was tended to at the scene by medical staff working on the event on the day.
But his face needs to be operated on to ensure it does not become misshapen as the broken cheekbone heals.
“I got to the top of the mountain and was coming down it at pretty face speed. I caught (the parked car) at the last second, at high speed, and went into the back of it,” he said.
“I was fortunate I wasn’t knocked out. But I had a nasty gash on my knee and I also broke my cheekbone as well.
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“At the moment I’m in St James's Hospital in Dublin waiting on an operation to fix several bones in my cheek.”
He had initially gone for a scan to the Mater. Based on the results he was told to present himself to St James’s last Friday.
He was also instructed to fast from the night before as his surgery was hopefully going to take place last Friday.
“I’ve been in here since; every day I am told ‘hopefully we’ll get you in that evening’," he explained of his situation.
"You can’t go under a general anaesthetic with food in your stomach. So every day from the night before I fast in the hopes of getting the surgery the following day.
“This is day number seven. The hospital food seems nice but I have never eaten it. Come 8 o’clock usually they come around to me and say ‘look we’re sorry, it’s not happening, we can’t do it’.
“So at that point I rush out the door and get something into me as quick as I can. I have to be back in the hospital bed for 10 o’clock or I lose my place in the queue.”
He says he was not in severe pain. Furthermore, he was taking up a hospital bed that he did not need. But he was unable to get an appointment to simply present himself for surgery.
“Instead, because I need to hold my place in the queue, I have to stay in hospital every night. That’s the system. It’s like psychological and physical torture.
“I’m after losing about 5 kilos; I have nearly a stone in weight gone. You live in hope every day.”
Barry added the problem arose because space in the operating theatre was at a premium. Staff were trying their best but accident and emergency cases took precedence over his case.
“If I don’t get in today I’m leaving; I can’t do this anymore," he said. "It’s not worth it. I’ll have to sort something out somewhere else.”
Ryan Tubridy said he would check in with Barry later to see how his case was progressing. He finished the show asking if Barry would be back on the bike once he was fixed up.
“Oh yeah,” he replied, “I just won’t make the same mistake twice.”
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