'Give me my old life back'

A young Athlone woman has made a public plea for help as she has spent over one year stuck in a hospital ward because of a lack of funding for home nursing care. Sammy Brill from Kilmacoo Avenue, who has spinal muscular disease and other health complications, has been in Portiuncula Hospital since August 2008 when she suffered three collapsed lungs and further medical complications. Although she has now recovered, she cannot return home because the HSE has no funding and no staff available to provide her with a 24-hour nurse. Sammy and her mother Patricia wrote to the Westmeath Independent this week to describe their frustrations at the lack of support Sammy is receiving. "Her life is here in Athlone, going into town, the shops and out to Bozos, but she can't do that any more," said Patricia, speaking to the Westmeath Independent yesterday. "Do the HSE expect to leave her there in hospital? I fought for 30 years for her, we shouldn't be made fight. We're told in a boom and in a recession that there's no money, so it's not that. There's just no forward planning by the HSE," she added. Sammy is also in a wheelchair, as she suffers from Anterior Horn Cell damage which affects the spine, muscles and nervous system. After spending some time on a ventilator in the hospital, she then had to have a tracheotomy and now uses a Nippy support machine to breathe and also has a peg feed tube inserted into her stomach, as she cannot swallow. She is now trying to increase her time spent breathing without any support every day. However, Sammy is in a ward with elderly people and is afraid of catching infections which would be very detrimental to her health. And because she is young and mentally strong, she is determined to have the best life she can, out of hospital. "I am a very independent-minded woman and I can not live my life in a hospital where the risk of me getting infections is high. Nearly every day someone is brought in with a chest infection and I'm scared of catching them. The mental stimulation is not good in here. I am 30, surrounded by 70 to 90 year olds," wrote Sammy. The hospital wrote to the HSE to say that Sammy could be discharged, but needed nursing care to assist with the tracheotomy suctions and peg feeds, but according to her mother, the HSE replied "no funding, no staff, no hours". Patricia described Sammy as an extremely social person who likes to shop, go out and meet people - none of which she has done now in a year. Earlier this summer, she managed five hours out of the hospital to attend her niece's christening. She maintains contact with the outside world through the internet and Facebook on her laptop. "So my daughter who fought so hard to live, is now alive. But what sort of life is it, sitting each day in a ward with sick people? If it wasn't for the nurses, who look after her and know her so well, I think she would have gone insane," said Patricia. Patricia added she is at her wit's end and doesn't know what to do or who to ask for support. "There must be something that can be done to enable her to go on living her life with some quality."