'Why I ignored my surgeon's advice and put my life on the line'

A business he had started at his father’s home quickly blossomed into one of the best known enterprises in Ireland. Today, the name Eddie Torrens is recognised the length and breadth of the country as well as in many parts of Asia.

The type of MS Eddie contracted - relapse and remittance - enabled him to have periods of ease but also terrible bouts of pain and suffering.

Working through those bad days wasn’t easy, but anyone who knows Eddie Torrens knows he isn’t a quitter. He made numerous visits to specialists and also turned to faith healers, masseurs, indeed anyone who might be able to help, travelling for years to distant parts of Ireland for treatment.

At one stage he even employed the services of the personal trainer of Boyzone star, Ronan Keating, for treatment sessions which offered some respite.

But with every passing month, his condition was slowly worsening and coping with everyday living coupled with a feeling of helplessness prompted him to take the biggest gamble of his life.

Eddie was watching a television news programme in which an item suggested that a possible breakthrough for MS sufferers could be on the way.

The news clip featured an Italian doctor - Paolo Zamboni - whose research indicated that an inflated small balloon could clear out the blockage of the brain draining veins which brought a considerable improvement in the status of most of the 64 patients treated.

Eddie then discovered that a member of the medical profession in Belfast, himself an MS sufferer, had undergone similar treatment and the result was a complete change in his life.

“I spoke to the gentleman and he reassured me that while clinical trials were still being carried out in the United Kingdom, some other countries were offering the surgery and he had decided to go for it,” Eddie said.

He went on: “I then came in contact with a girl from Canada. She was also an MS sufferer who had undergone the operation with some success. She said that there were only three surgeons in the world who carried out the operation and that the likelihood of me getting treatment was very slim given the demand.”

It was then that Eddie enjoyed a remarkable piece of good fortune. His contacts in the motoring world extend to all parts and a fellow car dealer in the South of Ireland had a contact in Russia who was friendly with someone who, in turn, knew the Russian surgeon, Professor Grozdinski.

It was this link that paved the way for Eddie to make an appointment some six months before his operation.

Earlier last month, Eddie embarked on the one journey that had more significance than any he had undertaken before. He was met at the airport and ferried to an hotel for an overnight rest before being brought to Toduka hospital in Sofia the following morning.

At 10 a.m. medical staff prepared him for surgery and 40 minutes after that, the operation was complete.

Eddie spent a total of three days in hospital before embarking on the return journey home. That, in itself, also proved something of a traumatic experience for while the flight to Luton went smoothly, the volcanic ash from Iceland prevented him from taking the final leg to Belfast.

Bus, train and a ferry from Holyhead to Dublin were the next steps in the journey followed by the long trek to Ballymoney.

Many will find it incredible that three days after an operation of such magnitude and risk, Eddie Torrens went straight to work with barely no sleep in 24 hours.

However, his progress has been significant. Before the operation he could barely lift his foot one inch above the ground and now he has no difficulty in raising his leg some six inches to a foot.

He can also get in and out of bed and out of chairs unaided and much quicker than before and has also less of a cold feeling in his feet. Eddie has been told that the treatment will last at least four years, but that it will take sometime before he notices a significant difference in his mobility.

Eddie has stressed that he has no criticism of the treatment he received from his own surgeon in Northern Ireland or any of the medical staff and fully respects their advice that he should not have undertaken the operation. He also accepts the reasons why on committing himself to the Bulgarian hospital his surgeon had no alternative but to ‘strike him off.’

“I did what I did because I was at my wits end. There were some days I could easily have stayed on in bed and never even thought about going to work, but having read what others had experienced, I was determined to try one more time and I’m very glad I did.

“I use to drive high performance cars in rallies and not to be able to get behind the wheel of a car is soul destroying.

“My experience has been great and I only hope that someday in the near future, research will be completed here and that sufferers here can get the benefits of the operation.

“Since I came home I have been inundated with telephone calls and people coming up to me to ask about how they can get the operation. I think it was money well spent and while I understand that it’s up to every individual what to do - whether to heed the advice of their surgeons or take a gamble, I know what worked for me.”