An emotional and outraged mother has spoke about her St Patricks day torment after she was left waiting for hours with her sick baby at Temple Street Children’s hospital after the emergency department (ED) was overrun with drunken teens on St Patrick’s Day.
The understandably angry mum named Suzy Brien (23) and her partner Calvin Ruddell, from Ashbourne, Co Meath, were left waiting for an appalling number of hours when they brought their seven-month-old-son Charlie to the hospital shortly after 12pm on Thursday. The annoyed mum said her little boy was suffering from severe bronchitis and was vomiting when his before they eventually decided to bring him to the hospital. However when they arrived, they were shocked and appalled to see a number of drunken teenagers in the emergency department.
Ms Brien told The Irish Independent that she, her partner and their severely ill son were left to wait on a chair, whilst the highly intoxicated teenagers were given beds. “We were left in the waiting room for two-and-a-half hours which is fine because I know they are busy, but it was hard to see teenagers getting carted in to a cubicle straight away,” Ms Brien said. It is understood there were five teenagers treated for alcohol related problems between the hours of 12pm and 2pm on Thursday afternoon.
Meanwhile a hospital spokeswoman confirmed that a number of teenagers “did cause some delay to other patients being seen but none of the teenagers had to be admitted and all went home” on Thursday. “Our Director of Nursing also confirmed that there was no compromising of care in this instance,” she said. “Unfortunately, parents of small children were exposed to these teens being brought into our ED because of the way in which the ED is configured and space limitations.”
Ms Brien revealed that little Charlie was assessed by a nurse 20 minutes after his arrival, and it took a two hours before a doctor came to see him, who determined that the youngster needed to be put on a nebuliser to help him breathe. However they were then scandalously asked to leave the ward cubicle whilst little Charlie was being treated in order to allow a teenager to use the bed to sleep off the effects of too much alcohol. Ms Brien further explained: “When you’re trying to get a nebuliser around a seven-month-old who is screaming crying and then you are sent out of the cubicle, it’s a nightmare.” “You couldn’t fault the staff, they’re really good. It was just the fact that those teenagers woke up yesterday morning and they weren’t sick. To see them getting prioritised was awful.”
The annoyed mum also revealed she witnessed one teenager being verbally abusive to their parent, others vomiting and another teen who had to be helped onto a trolley by a number of nursing staff during their stay at the hospital.