'Is no one listening? I’m dying here' Woman pleads for biopsy

By Síofra Grant

“Is no one listening? I’m dying here.” That is the heartbreaking plea of Westmeath woman Elizabeth Brady, who has been waiting on a vital kidney biopsy for months.

At 70 years old, Elizabeth has already beaten cancer once, and in doing so she lost two ribs, half of her left lung as well as the lining.

She is a mother and a grandmother, and once an active member of her community, always out for a walk or a swim. But not any more.

Her life has become a waiting game, a constant routine of ringing doctors begging for a procedure that she needs before beginning her treatment. So far she has not received an appointment.

Recently she contacted the office of Minister of State Robert Troy, TD. “They said they were going to look into it.”

The minister’s office confirmed he had sent a letter notifying the minister for health about the issue and the seemingly endless wait Elizabeth has been subjected to.

Elizabeth is hoping the letter will move her treatment forward but she has been waiting for a biopsy since October of last year.

“I sit here day after day waiting,” Elizabeth says, sounding frustrated.

She was diagnosed with lung cancer for the second time in August, and this year the disease had taken root in her remaining healthy lung. It had also spread to her kidneys.

Following an MRI and a PET scan, it was decided that her treatment couldn’t move forward until she had a biopsy on her lung and on her kidney.

Elizabeth only received the biopsy on her lung in January.

Her oncologist at Tullamore hospital had her marked down for chemotherapy in March; however until she gets the kidney biopsy, she cannot get the treatment.

“She said we’re more worried about your kidney because that’s actually getting bigger, so we have to wait for the biopsy to see what St James’s hospital is going to do.

Elizabeth said she has had no word from the doctor in St James’s hospital.

“I’m ringing and ringing and ringing and I keep getting the doctor’s secretary. “She says oh, the biopsy’s nothing to do with me, I only make the appointments to see the doctor.

“Then I get a call from another number, she says we had a meeting Friday, we know that you need the biopsy and you’re going to have one.

“Then she said, well I don’t make the dates for that.”

Elizabeth was then admitted to Mullingar hospital for treatment to a collapsed lung. She explained the situation to her doctor there.

“He said to me, you should have heard from them by now Elizabeth, he said ring them.

“But I’m sick of ringing them. So he knows about it, Tullamore knows about it, St James’s knows about it, but nobody’s doing anything about it, and I’m in agony.

“My stomach is all swollen. I have no life because I’m always waiting.

“My son lives in Wales with my grandchildren, so I used to go over there a lot, but now I don’t travel at all because I feel so ill all the time.

“I don’t sleep much. I was awake most of last night, I just don’t know where to turn.”

Elizabeth is terrified. “It’s all down to St James’s, as I say. “They know about me, every time I ring them, they say, oh yeah we know, we’re sorry we just haven’t got a date.

“They say, “Give me a name, give me a number.”

“They say, “We’ll phone you back, we’ll get in touch with you, you’ll hear from us.

“And then the other day, she must have lost her temper with me because she said, “I told you I’d ring you when I have a date.”

At that moment in the interview with the Westmeath Examiner, Elizabeth begins to get upset, the frustration of her situation coming to the surface.

“Is it because I’m on my own here? Like, it’s just me here in Ireland and my family is in Wales, my son and my grandson. Is it because you’re on your own and you have no one to speak for you. Like who else can I contact?”

When asked for a response, the HSE press office for Dublin and the Midlands stated: “The HSE cannot comment on individual patient cases.”

The silence is pushing Elizabeth to her limit. “I learned I had this in August, last August. I’m doing everything I can to get well or to get better and I’m just a number.

“Something has to be done and where do I go?

“I am not alive, I’m in prison, I can’t go anywhere, I can’t do anything.

“I used to be so active, swimming and walking, I never smoked, never drank and I have all this bloody cancer.

“Why can’t they do the biopsy on my kidneys?”

Elizabeth says the last few months have taken their toll. The waiting has exhausted her. “I had an appointment, it was supposed to be March 22 for the radiology department but it’s changed now because I still don’t have the biopsy done.

“It’s (her lung cancer) growing and growing while they’re waiting for the kidneys to be sorted.

“It’s not good just saying words, I need someone to do something.”

Elizabeth is still ringing people, she recently emailed the health minister directly and doesn’t intend to stop until she is heard. “As I said, I’m going nowhere, the only place I’ll be going is the cemetery.”