This article is from page 18 of the 2011-01-11 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 18 JPG
ENNIS STUDENT Katie Drennan knows better than most the importance of the adult Cystic Fibrosis Out Patient Unit which makes up part of the € 10.5 million development unveiled yesterday (Monday).
Twenty-year-old Katie (pictured above), a second year Business Studies student at the University of Limerick, was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis (CF) when she was just shy of her third birthday.
Her 19-year-old brother Jordan also has CF.
“The difference this new development will make for my quality of life and for many other CF patients is difficult to summarise,” she explained.
“Over the past 20 years I’ve had a lot of experience of the Irish hospi- tal system, some of it good and some quite difficult. I’ve spent a lot of time as an in-patient in the Mid Western Regional Hospital, in Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin and in St Vincent’s Hospital. This wonderful new facility will improve the lives for all Cystic Fibrosis patients in the mid-west region.
“The benefits of such a unit are many. It means we will not have to travel to other CF centres in Dublin to receive our treatment. We will not have to endure long hospital stays away from home. We will no longer fear the risk of cross-infection when we attend the hospital for treatments.
“Such a unit will also benefit our families, as long-term absence from the home due to frequent hospital stays can sometimes be very diffi- cult, and the absence from our families and friends can sometimes be the hardest to deal with,” she said.
“The importance of an isolation facility cannot be over emphasised enough and the recent appointment of Dr Brian Casserly as the first Adult CF Specialist Consultant in Limerick is a major step forward.
“TLC4CF hopes that this new unit will also mean that CF patients attending the Mid Western Regional Hospital will not have to go through A&E to be admitted to hospital, which has always been detrimental to CF suffers health, due to the high risks of cross-infection.
“With the continuous help of TLC4CF all CF patients attending the hospital won’t have to endure the dangerous and inadequate services that previously existed,” said Katie.