A Dublin carer has slammed Ireland's health system after he was left waiting for 24 hours in Tallaght A&E.
Mark Wilson's disabled son was referred to the emergency department for suspected appendicitis on Friday, March 4.
He was immediately appalled by the lack of space in the waiting room when they arrived at 11:30am.
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Mark told Dublin Live that the 24-hour waiting time was unacceptable, particularly because it meant leaving his wife and daughter at home who he cares for.
He said: "The waiting room was busy. There were no free seats. People were standing and sitting or lying on the floor.
"Staff brought out more seats mid afternoon, but not enough to alleviate the problem.
"We were triaged pretty quickly, told that we would have a long wait, not possible to say how long, and returned to the waiting room.
"Anyone who could be treated by an Advanced Nursing Practitioner appeared to be being processed,assessed and treated.
"Others, like my son, who needed a doctor, were not being seen."
The long wait time was incredibly difficult for the pair, as Mark's son has ADHD.
He said: "We spent a full 24 hours in the waiting room before being seen by a doctor. And another 5 and a half hours before the assessment was completed.
"This was challenging for a number of reasons. Firstly, my son is ADHD and has a disability.
"Waiting is extremely difficult for him, and occupying himself for that amount of time was very challenging. He also had not slept the previous night due to the pain.
"To make things even more difficult, I am the family carer for my disabled wife and for my Autistic and disabled daughter, I had to leave both of them at home from 8.30am that morning to bring my son to the GP and then to A&E.
"This was extremely stressful for me and for my daughter in particular, who does not respond well to changes in routine."
Mark said that nurses and doctors were really helpful but simply couldn't cope with the backlog.
He said: "Every nurse and doctor we met was fantastic! Professional, kind, caring, articulate, apologetic and absolutely fed up to their back teeth with the systemic issues and working conditions in the hospital.
"The nurses explained some of the reasons for the delay when we were being triaged, however nobody came out into the waiting room and addressed the growing wait times.
"Nothing was being done proactively to keep the many people waiting updated, or to see if conditions in the waiting room could be improved or made more comfortable for the many people waiting.
"One individual, management I suspect, as they were not wearing scrubs, came out into the waiting room during the afternoon on Friday and instructed non-patients to give up their chairs.
"The galling thing about that was that many parents and partners were already standing because of the lack of seating. You can't expect people - even non-patients to stand for 24+ hours and not provide seating for them.
"The estimated waiting time given by the triage nurses went from 'A long wait' to 'there are people ahead of you who are waiting for 10 hours' to 'you could be waiting 18 to 24 hours'."
Mark was stressed that if they left, they would have to go through the whole ordeal again.
The horrific wait had a serious impact on the entire family in the days that followed.
The full-time carer said: "The anxiety for me was, if we left, we'd just end up having to come back and wait all over again. so we stayed. Some others didn't.
"The really sad part is that when we were leaving, 30 hours after arriving, there were people still in the waiting room who had been there longer than the 24 hours we were.
"The reasons we were given by the triage nurses and doctor for the delay were that there were three or four emergencies and all the doctors were needed to try and save people's lives. The hospital is severely understaffed. Colleagues are out with Covid.
"Colleagues are out on stress leave. There were no cubicles available to assess patients, no trolleys and no beds for patients to be admitted. Everyone was working flat out in extremely difficult circumstances.
"My son got two hours of sleep in the previous 46 hours, in a cubicle while waiting for blood results.
"About 10.30pm, 22 hours after we arrived, a friend took it on herself to drive across the city with a 'care package' for us. Sandwiches, water, gum, neck pillows.
"The seats, if you had one, were extremely uncomfortable. They are not designed to be used for long periods, and are crippling if you have any kind of back problem.
"My son has sensory issues and resorted to sitting on one of the neck pillows and putting the other behind his back. I still had to massage the knotted muscles in his back multiple times .
"As time marched on I suffered from foot cramps, neck pain, back pain, shoulder pain and raw ears from wearing my mask for almost 30 hours.
"I am ADHD myself and had brought a fidget with me because I knew even a couple of hours waiting would challenge me. I used it so much that night that the finish wore off it, turning my hands green.
"By Saturday morning my son was fidgeting from head to toe almost constantly. The mental toll on us both was horrendous!
"Despite sleeping most of Sunday, my son was unable to wake for college on Monday morning."
Cllr Daithi Doolan has slammed the long waiting times in emergency departments after waiting for several hours to get a broken arm seen.
He said: "The staff are excellent but it is hugely under-resourced. What I saw deeply shocked me. It is at breaking point. I would be very concerned about some of the situations I saw.
"I would ask the Minister for Health to come and spend a night in A&E with someone that is presenting tonight."
A spokeswoman for Tallaght Hospital said: "The Hospital regrets any delay a patient of any age experiences whilst waiting in our Emergency Department.
"The volume of patients attending the Emergency Department can cause delays in waiting times, patients are prioritised according to clinical need and would ask the public to attend their GP in the first instance where appropriate.
"In recent months the ED has been particularly busy, attendances for the last six months have exceeded all records in the previous six years.
"We are committed to treating everyone who presents to our ED however we do so strictly in order of medical priority.
"Given the volume of patients attending the Emergency Department, we regret there are lengthy delays and long wait times for those who do not need urgent treatment."
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