Mother-of-four Aideen Phelan was left with speech difficulties and a weakness in the right side of her body following a brain aneurysm in April 2023.
She survived thanks to six surgeries at Beaumont Hospital but had an intense frustration with being unable to communicate with her four children.
“When I couldn’t talk to my children, I was so angry”, she said. “If I didn’t learn how to talk, I wouldn’t be able to take care of my children, to be there 100 per cent with them.”
Phelan, who works in a bookies in her hometown of Naas, Co Kildare, said her life has improved thanks to the care she received in Peamount rehabilitation centre in Newcastle, Co Dublin. She worked with an occupational therapist and speech and language therapist. Group sessions helped her to feel less alone in her recovery.
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She went home to her children after five weeks of rehabilitation.
“When my own life was nearly gone, I was like: ‘Right, what’s important in my life?’ Coming back to work and getting my speech back were one of the most important things I’ve ever had to do.
“Beaumont saved my life, but Peamount helped me to heal and gave me my life back,” she said.
Phelan is one of three former patients of Peamount who spoke at an event hosted by Neurological Alliance of Ireland to mark World Brain Day.
Also speaking at the event were Anne Marie Leonard (37), from Edenderry, Co Offaly, and Mike Preston, who lives in Lanesborough on the river Shannon, where he suffered a stroke aged 57.
Leonard was working as a carer when she first experienced balance issues, found she knocked into things and fell without explanation. “I never thought the roles would be reversed,” she said. After three months in Tullamore Hospital, she was admitted to Peamount healthcare centre.
“Medically, I was fine, it was rehabilitation I needed. I couldn’t hold a spoon, I couldn’t hold a fork to feed myself, I could do nothing. With the help of the physio and the occupational therapist and different aids and pieces of equipment, I regained it all.”
She went home in July 2024 after seven months at the facility. “I left using a rollator [mobility walker] and now I’m down to just using a stick. Had it not been for [Peamount], I would most likely still be spoon-fed and in a wheelchair,” she said.
Preston said he ”wouldn’t be anywhere near the person I am today without" the Peamount centre. He returned home fully mobile 3½ months after admission able to walk, talk and take care of himself.
Mags Rogers, chief executive of the Neurological Alliance of Ireland, a network of 40 voluntary organisations, said the event aims to highlight an inequality in services for the 860,000 people across Ireland living with a neurological condition.
The alliance is calling for the Government to invest in 45 beds for neurological rehabilitation this year to address a national shortfall of 175 beds. It says this shortage was highlighted by the HSE in a report from last September.
Ms Rogers said it can be a “real challenge” to get into an inpatient service due to waiting lists. Then when people return to their communities they could be living in an area without a community neuro-rehabilitation team, she said.
“There’s gaps at all stages. It’s all fragmented.”
