Joe Fahy
Joe Fahy is a Resuscitation Officer in Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe. 
“My brother Thomas moved to Australia to be with his fiancé three years ago, he was 43 at the time. A week after Tom went I got a phone call from his fiancé Jodie saying he had collapsed and had been admitted to hospital with a “brain bleed”. I have a nursing background in ICU, CCU and ED so I immediately rang the hospital in Melbourne and I spoke to the Neuro Registrar. They were planning to try to coil the vessel in Thomas’s brain to stop the bleed and prevent future bleeding. The procedure was a success but due to size of the bleed Thomas was very ill and had to be put on a ventilator. My sister, Rose and left the next day and by the time that we arrived the outcome was bad. Thomas donated his organs to four lucky recipients.
The team in Melbourne advised me and my sisters to get sibling screening for Cerebral Aneurysm, as I’m a nurse I decided to go first to set an example. I didn’t think that I would be diagnosed with the same problem. I was diagnosed with a Cerebral Aneurism but it was not suitable for coiling, so I had surgery to have vessel clipped by Mr Pidgeon and his team in Beaumont Hospital.
I made a full recovery but the vessel ran over the speech centre in the brain so I lost my speech for a period of time. The speech centre was disrupted because they had to dig out to get to the vessel.
With the support and help of my wife Tracey, my sons Aidan and Joseph, my family , friends and work colleagues I made a great recovery. I also got wonderful support from the Speech and Language Therapist in St Brendan’s Loughrea.
I’m now back at work but I still have small problems with my speech but I know I’m a lucky man because the screening saved my life and prevented a deadly stroke. Thankfully, my two sisters were screened and they’re clear. I think my story shows that screening is important and can save lives".
“My brother Thomas moved to Australia to be with his fiancé three years ago, he was 43 at the time. A week after Tom went I got a phone call from his fiancé Jodie saying he had collapsed and had been admitted to hospital with a “brain bleed”. I have a nursing background in ICU, CCU and ED so I immediately rang the hospital in Melbourne and I spoke to the Neuro Registrar. They were planning to try to coil the vessel in Thomas’s brain to stop the bleed and prevent future bleeding. The procedure was a success but due to size of the bleed Thomas was very ill and had to be put on a ventilator. My sister, Rose and left the next day and by the time that we arrived the outcome was bad. Thomas donated his organs to four lucky recipients.
The team in Melbourne advised me and my sisters to get sibling screening for Cerebral Aneurysm, as I’m a nurse I decided to go first to set an example. I didn’t think that I would be diagnosed with the same problem. I was diagnosed with a Cerebral Aneurism but it was not suitable for coiling, so I had surgery to have vessel clipped by Mr Pidgeon and his team in Beaumont Hospital.
I made a full recovery but the vessel ran over the speech centre in the brain so I lost my speech for a period of time. The speech centre was disrupted because they had to dig out to get to the vessel.
With the support and help of my wife Tracey, my sons Aidan and Joseph, my family , friends and work colleagues I made a great recovery. I also got wonderful support from the Speech and Language Therapist in St Brendan’s Loughrea.
I’m now back at work but I still have small problems with my speech but I know I’m a lucky man because the screening saved my life and prevented a deadly stroke. Thankfully, my two sisters were screened and they’re clear. I think my story shows that screening is important and can save lives".
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