Transplant recipient tells of joy as donor gives her gift of life

“My donor is on my mind. I won’t know who that person is or who they were but they gave me this great gift of life. It is so fantastic that people do that and can find the strength to do that,” she said (Independent) >

 

Miscarriage: The story of a tiny, personal tragedy

The Early Pregnancy Unit in the Rotunda is a quiet side space away from the rush and heave of pregnancy and ambulance deliveries. I like the receptionist. She is pleasant and soft, with red shoes and a positive disposition. I remark on her shoes; it is not often you see a woman in red shoes. They are pretty, flat, shiny, I think. She wears them with black trousers. Her desk is full of Post-Its and I know she knows I am fine by the way she looks at me and responds to my questions.

I don’t feel like I belong there, nor have I anything in common with the ladies beside me. They are miscarriage ladies; I don’t know this world.

It is alien to me. I know the emergency room, with my big, heaving, contracting belly and the clickity-clackity-clack of the baby heartbeat echoing around the room, surround sound. I sigh, look at my watch, wonder what Alec is doing to entertain Joshua on Parnell Square, sip water from a plastic cup and wait. (Times) >

 

Festival targets stigma of mental ill-health

The First Fortnight arts project was founded three years ago by JP Swaine but this was the first year it was extended into a 10-day festival. Mr Swaine said the voluntary organisers were humbled by the “overwhelming positive response” to the cultural events. (Times) >

 

I needed a break from ‘me’

It would take years of pain and three death-wish crises before Suzanne Power heeded the psychiatrist’s advice to find her true life

I SAT in the office of Mr Daniels, a consultant psychiatrist. He saw something in me I didn’t yet see. His belief was if I had a rest for months I would make new choices after it.

He asked me if I would consider hospitalisation for rest and recuperation. “Just a week or two. Gather yourself.”

I said I couldn’t because I didn’t want to face my sadness. I just wanted him to help me. I was 22 years old. Mr Daniels talked about going into the mountains of his native country to live alone for months. You can’t go into the mountains in a city. So hospital would be the ‘mountain’ for me.

You can’t take two months off without losing your job, I said.

“What if you need more than a couple of months off later? What if you can’t work at all?” he asked. “You need to be a hermit for a while.”

Mr Daniels prescribed a rest from humanity for me and I didn’t take it. It was a mistake. Not taking the time then put me at risk over the next ten years. On three occasions, I came too close to enacting the death wish I lived with more or less constantly. (Examiner) >

* Read more about Suzanne’s journey through depression, and where it led her, in her book Heart Lines, €12.99, published by Londubh Books, in bookshops and available online now from the publisher’s and other websites.

 

Mental health awareness to top bill as unique arts festival kicks off in Dublin

THE REPUBLIC’S only arts festival dedicated to promoting mental health awareness has opened in Dublin with a wide range of music, film, theatre and more promised over the next two weeks.

A number of specially commissioned art works have been created to coincide with the start of First Fortnight 2012, which takes place in and around Temple Bar.

The festival is being staged in association with See Change, a Government-backed initiative that seeks to challenge discrimination on mental health issues.

Among the highlights of the festival programme is a concert with bands Cashier No 9, Le Galaxie and Royseven, whose song We Should Be Lovers was the most played Irish single on radio here last year.

Other highlights include a series of new short films from directors such as Hugh O’Connor and Mary Redmond, a number of visual art and photography exhibitions and two performances of 565+, a play that tells the story of how one woman sought solace in the theatre when struggling with depression. (Times) >

 

Idea of a big labour ward horrified me, says home-birth mum

During her first pregnancy, Sonia had to be induced in the Coombe. She gave birth in the hospital’s delivery suite but she was mindful of the overcrowding in maternity hospitals, which has grown worse in the past couple of years. (Independent) >

 

‘Giant’ put on display wanted burial at sea

A PROMINENT medical ethicist has called for the skeleton of Charles Byrne, the “Irish giant”, which has been displayed at the Royal College of Surgeons in London for almost 200 years, to be buried at sea.

Writing in the Christmas issue of the British Medical Journal , Prof Len Doyal, emeritus professor of medical ethics at the University of London, and Thomas Muinzer, of the school of law at Queen’s University Belfast, say it is not too late to grant Byrne’s wish to be sealed in a lead coffin and buried at sea. (Times) >

 

Spike in readers

Here’s what happened when this quiet, little website, with about 30 views per day, mentioned somebody in the headlines:

 

Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) patient

Eventually, after 10 months of too-ing and fro-ing with the family doctor, Peter was referred to Crumlin Children’s Hospital. “Basically I was told after a number of tests that Peter would never be anything more than a vegetable and that I would be better off putting him in a home. We weren’t expecting that. But myself and my husband Tony looked at each other and said ‘no way’. I knew he could recognise me. He could smile. I felt he would walk and talk. Something told me the doctor was wrong,” Lena says. (Examiner) >

 

Patients soothed by internet messages

A trial of the web-based service from Irish start-up company Vivartes was carried out among patients of the National Stem Cell Transplant Unit at St James’s Hospital in Dublin.

‘Open Window’ transmits images and videos of artwork along with positive messages from family members directly to a patient’s room using the internet and mobile networks. Denis Roche, who founded the company which has one part-time and two full-time employees in Kilkenny, said the results of the Trinity College study would boost the rollout of ‘Open Window’. (Independent) >