The public have their say

A number of members of the public who have personal experience of the value of Roscommon Hospital addressed Saturday’s major rally in Roscommon town.     Mary Finn said that her nephew, Declan, had been injured in a recent traffic accident. She said he would have died only for the treatment he received at Roscommon Hospital.    Michael Lambert from Rockfield said that he had an accident last year and while he lost the sight of his left eye, staff at Roscommon Hospital had saved the sight in his other eye. He had attended a hospital in Galway recently for a check-up and parking his vehicle alone took twenty minutes. When he got inside the hospital, the consultant was too busy to speak to him.    Carmel O’Connor described herself as a ‘wife, mum and granny’ and recounted details of her illness and how she owed her life to Roscommon Hospital and in particular to surgeon Mr. Michael Relihan.    Ms. O’Connor said that it was vital that services were retained at Roscommon Hospital for ‘our children and our children’s children.’    Ms. Mary O’Grady said that her son had been involved in a traffic accident six weeks ago and ‘wouldn’t have made it’ were it not for Roscommon Hospital.