NI intensive care nurse missing her son as she fights coronavirus battle

Frontline health service staff are amongst those most at risk of contracting the virus.

Catherine Kealey, a nurse in the intensive care unit at Altnagelvin Hospital in Londonderry, has decided to break all physical contact with her seven-year-old boy Fiontan.

She described, in a moving radio interview on Tuesday morning, how she now has to visit her sister’s house each day to speak with her little boy from a safe distance in the garden.

“I am missing being with my child more and more each day and I am missing my old life,” she told BBC Radio Foyle.

“But seeing patients’ health improving is very rewarding and it does make that sacrifice worth it.”

She continued: “Fiontan is only seven. He is with my oldest sister. She is educating him and caring for him with her own children. She has three children herself. She has an underlying condition and my mum has an underlying condition, so this was kind of our only alternative so that everyone would stay safe and stay well.

“I do see him every day. I call to her house and we talk through her porch. We can be in the garden together. I still deliver his food and I do his washing, so I still feel part of his life.

“I am away from my family and that makes me relieved, in a way, that I won’t be infecting them.”

She added: “I think it’s been worth it, even though it has been very hard. I do have days where it is harder than others, but each day is a day closer to this being over.”

Describing the situation in Altnagelvin’s ICU, the intensive care nurse said: “At the moment we are adjusting to new ways of nursing, with the personal protective equipment that we have been provided with.

“I feel we have adapted very well. We are supporting each other very well. The management is excellent and I feel very supported.

“In the wards, I don’t feel maybe they are being as well provided for (in terms of the protective equipment). As far as I know there isn’t a good supply. I do know the wards wouldn’t be as well protected as we are in the ICU.”

She added: “It is very difficult but you just have to be empathetic to your patients, and provide them with a lot of reassurance and try and make them feel not alone.

“That is maybe another reason why the sacrifice that I have made has been worth it, because I know I am helping people.”