The partner of a Cork man who remains in hospital in Marrakesh after suffering a brain haemorrhage while on holiday there is hoping to get him home soon to continue his recovery at CUH.
Speaking on The Neil Prendeville Show on Cork’s RedFM, Caroline Daly explained that Jason Hood (56) is at last showing hopeful signs of recovery. The medical emergency arose after Jason vomited and suffered severe head pain on the first night of their holiday in Agadir on June 17th. After being rushed from the local hospital to a specialist clinic in Marrakesh, Jason’s condition deteriorated and he went into a coma.
While Caroline is understandably anxious to get him home by air ambulance to CUH for further treatment, it has not happened to date as the insurance company need to be reassured that Jason is fit to fly.
In an update on the show, Caroline gave Neil the positive news that having been treated with antibiotics for an infection, Jason had opened his eyes the previous night and was able to touch her face with his left hand. While he has suffered paralysis and is unable to speak, he is following people in the room with his eyes. Scans show the bleeding on his brain has stopped and he has no fever.
“He’s not talking or anything but this is massive,” she told Neil, whose show had contacted the office of An Taoiseach and asked it to intervene when Caroline first contacted them before the weekend. Once there is a clinical handover in place and the insurer’s doctors agree that Jason is safe to fly, she hopes to get him home to Cork, possibly as soon as later this week.
“At home there will be proper rehabilitation and care,” she explained. “I got an email there from Micheál Martin’s office and they have contacted the CUH. And I’ve been cc’d on the emails now that are going back and forth between the doctors at CUH and the doctors here.”
While Jason and Caroline have holiday insurance, the treatment needed and the cost of an urgent return to Ireland is not fully covered. Family and friends have set up a GoFundMe to support the couple in paying additional costs not covered by insurance, so that they can focus fully on his recovery.
