A FERMANAGH doctor whose father died after contracting Covid at a local nursing home has praised the hard work and dedication of the staff who cared for him.
Cyril O’Hare (89) passed away peacefully at the end of October in the Millcroft Care Home in Enniskillen.
A father-of-five, including to sons Dr Brendan O’Hare, GP in Ederney, and Prof Ronan O’Hare, assistant medical director at SWAH, Cyril was originally from Hannahstown in Belfast, where he was buried after a funeral Mass at St Michael’s Church in Enniskillen on October 31.
Speaking to the Herald, Dr O’Hare, pictured below, said his father had been an inpatient at the Millcroft, which was sadly hit by an outbreak of the virus in recent weeks, for around a year.
“He’d been in declining health and was extremely frail. Unfortunately he contracted Covid, and he really followed the pattern of a lot of people where for about the first week or so he was relatively stable and he just had a deterioration after that.
“As a family we decided not to move him anywhere. He stayed in the Millcroft and the standard of care he received from all of the staff, and the support we received as a family when we were allowed in to be with him, was absolutely incredible. I can’t thank them enough.”
Having navigated the pandemic without a single case until last month, several patients the Millcroft Care Home have now died after contracting Covid.
Dr O’Hare said this had been very hard on the staff at the home, who have been upset by some TV and news reports on the situation.
“It is really undeserved because they are really trying their best,” said Dr O’Hare, who said the staff had run the home “like a fortress” throughout the pandemic in a bid to keep the virus out.
“These things do happen, things that aren’t anybody’s fault,” he said.
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