Patient Had To Share Hospital Trolley With Handcuffed Prisoner

Sam McNicholl, a publican from Cork, told his local radio station of how he took turns sharing a trolley with a handcuffed prisoner in Cork University Hospital. Sam, who runs the thriving live music venue Connolly’s Of Leap, told C103's Cork Today programme yesterday about his shocking experiences after arriving to the hospital's A&E department with appendicitis. The publican told broadcaster Patricia Messenger that his girlfriend brought him to the CUH emergency department at 11pm as he was in excruciating pain,

"I was doubled over, it was definitely 10/10 pain."

Sam went on to describe the "totally over-run and over-full" emergency department and explained that he was "put sitting upright in a plastic chair" and said there was a significant delay before he got to see a doctor,

"It was about seven hours before I was seen by a doctor. I got a trolley about eight hours after I arrived, I was in a chair until then."

He also said that, in desperation, his instinct was to leave,

"I was taking turns on a trolley with another guy. I hadn’t slept in two days. I don’t know what he was there for - all I know is that he was a prisoner. He was handcuffed to somebody."

Mr. McNicholl expressed his admiration for how the nursing staff were coping with the chaos and over-crowding,

"My brother is a nurse so it rang home."

After his surgery, Sam took to Facebook to praise the hospital staff at CUH and highlight the ongoing crisis in our health system,

"So my appendix was about to burst yesterday, I was rushed to emergency room, as a result I have spent the last few days in hospital. It has been one of the most painful experiences of my short life but now with the surgery complete I can begin the healing process. I feel truly indebted to the hard work and kindness of the hospital staff at CUH literally my heroes. That's why I wrote this. What's honestly even more painful then my physical agony is the current hospital crisis!! People are literally waiting up to 10 hours in plastic chairs in hallways just to get seen! It has literally broken my heart to see these amazing doctors and nurses holding this crumbling system together. The staff here at the CUH have been pushed past breaking point. The system here in Ireland is officially broken, the resources are not being allocated to the people. And in turn mass suffering is now very real." 

He continued his impassioned post, writing that Ireland as a political state has lost his respect,