Margaret McHugh has a stark argument for the retention of the stroke unit at South West Acute Hospital. And it is made in relation to her husband, Ciaran, who had a stroke on November 6 2018.

“Ciaran would be dead, he would not be here today, if it was not for SWAH, I firmly believe that.”

What makes Ciaran’s story relevant in the current context of the consultation into the future of Stroke Services in Northern Ireland is that he is living, breathing and walking proof of how the current system can work to its optimum for the people of Fermanagh.

Ciaran had his stroke in Kinawley where he lives, received his initial stroke assessment in SWAH where it was decided he needed a certain type of treatment, thrombectomy, which is only available in Belfast. In all six options put forward by the Department of Health on the reconfiguration of Stroke Services this would remain the case.

Thrombectomy is a highly specialised treatment but what is most vital is how quickly the initial assessment as to its need is carried out. Here Margaret picks up the story.

“Ciaran had an initial injection and scan at SWAH and was sent up to Belfast. It all happened so quickly. It happened about ten past eight in the morning and he was in SWAH at twenty-five to nine and he was in the ambulance for Belfast at quarter to ten, and was taken in at the Royal at twenty five past eleven,” she explained before adding

“It would have been a very different story had it not happened so quickly,”

After spending five days in Belfast Ciaran was transferred back to SWAH where he spent 17 weeks as an inpatient:

“I got the best of care there and I am still getting it in terms of occupational therapists and physiotherapists,” Ciaran says.

For Margaret, the most telling factor in the story, is the time from her husband’s stroke to the correct diagnosis of what the next step in the treatment would be. And she paints a vivid picture of what might occur if that assessment had to take place in Altnagelvin:

“It is at least a two-hour drive to Altnagelvin from where we are, and if you get caught behind a lorry or a tractor or if it is bad weather you can add more time on. And then once you get there you have to get the tests. And then transferred on to Belfast if needs be. That is a long time to get to Belfast and if the assessment is delayed at all it is even longer.”

Talking about the need to retain stroke services for SWAH, Ciaran has a very simple additional message and it comes down to the fact that SWAH has the best performing stroke unit on these islands.

“I don’t understand why you are closing the best one that you have. It seems very silly for me. I would not be here only for it,” he said.