Friends of a young man who has spent over a year in hospital with a rare post Covid condition are walking from Galway to Dublin to raise much needed funds for his care.
Darren O’Connor, from Raheny, Dublin, went to the GP with a temperature in October 2021 and was referred to Beaumont Hospital where he has been ever since with Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome, a rare post Covid disease which has a high mortality rate in adults.
The 35-year-old's lifelong friend, Eoin McMahon, will be walking over 210km with pals Robert Ryan, Marc Malone, Gary Moore, and Conor Bergin over seven days from May 28 to June 3, 2023, to raise money to help support Darren and his wife Samantha.
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Speaking to the Irish Sunday Mirror, Eoin who has known Darren since they were 12, said it’s the least he can do to help his best friend. And he said how Darren's quick deterioration, despite being fully vaccinated and abiding by covid regulations, shocked everyone who knows him.
He said: "He contracted Covid in October 2021 and had very light symptoms. He lost his sense of taste for one day but that was it, he got over it very quickly.
“He went about his normal life and then he was sick the weekend before he went into hospital. He had a temperature and low blood pressure.
“Darren went to his GP on the Monday who thought it was a viral infection but thought he better go to the A&E just in case as it was so soon after Covid. He was texting us saying he was on a drip and they were running tests but said initially that they had hoped to let him out the following day and then on the Tuesday he texted me a 3pm to say he was going to Intensive Care and next thing was he went into respiratory arrest on the Wednesday morning.
“He was on full life support for about five weeks and it was very touch and go for the first three weeks whether he would make it at all. It was frightening how quickly it happened. He has been in hospital ever since.
“He started to improve and he did wake up and they said his brain scan was clear. He understands what's going on and when you talk to him he will smirk at you. He can move his head about six inches left and right and can move his eyes and smile but that’s about it.”
Eoin said that Darren's wife Sam has been through hell since her husband went into hospital. He added: “Poor Sam, her life is on hold. She goes up to see him four days a week and we all chip in and try and go to see him too, we have a kind of a rota with his family and friends.
“I talk to Sam every day, I don’t know how she does it, she’s been through hell for a year.”
It's hoped that Darren will be moved to the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dun Laoghaire, Dublin, shortly. Eoin continued: “He is next on the list to get into Dun Laoghaire Rehab and they are going to take him for six months so hopefully they will be able to work some miracles.
“He needs intensive rehab four or five times a day. The care the nurses at Beaumont have been amazing but they don’t have the capacity or facilities to give him the intensive rehab he needs.
“The thing he has is a lot more common in children after covid and his consultant said that of the thousand or so in the world who had the same complications as Darren have all died except for him.
"He’s a fighter and a battler. He has a long way to go but fingers crossed.”
Eoin concluded: “The response and generosity shown so far has been incredible and has already far exceeded our expectations. People have said to me ‘Are you mad walking from Galway to Dublin’ but I know he would do it for me too.”
To donate to the cause, click here.
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