A MAN who was brought to University Hospital Limerick on Sunday after collapsing in a seizure spent 27 hours sitting on a chair and was discharged after 48 hours without ever getting a bed.
The Corbally man photographed people lying on trolleys in the overcrowded emergency department and described a scenario where security guards had to be brought in as fights broke out and chaos threatened to erupt.
The man, who contacted the Limerick Post after his nightmare experience at UHL, said the scenes in the emergency department were “unbelievable”.
“I had an ECG and after that I sat on a chair for 27 hours. It was excruciating. There were people standing waiting to be seen.
“One girl was vomiting blood and I told staff I was worried she was about to collapse forward off her chair. They came and looked at her but she was still left sitting there. I had to get her a sick bag and a drink of water.”
The man, who asked not to be named, said the atmosphere was tense and angry and fights started to break out.
“People were very frustrated. At one stage, five security guards had to be called. There were people shouting and screaming and a woman was wandering around saying her handbag had been stolen. It really was like a war zone.”
The man, who eventually got a trolley and spent a night on it while undergoing various scans and tests, was discharged 48 hours after he arrived.
“I never saw a hospital bed. The staff were doing their very best, The sweat was coming out through them trying to cope. The were doing fantastic work but they were overwhelmed.”
Meanwhile, another Limerick man, who is pursuing an investigation after his father died at the hospital in 2010, is organising a protest march for later this month.
Mike Daly from Garryowen has set up a hospital protest Facebook page and is planning to lead a march from City Hall to the hospital on January 21, calling for the re-opening of emergency services at St John’s, Ennis, and Nenagh.
