Page 66 of Coming Home to Inishbeg Cove

Chapter 44

Penny

The drive to Limerick Hospital was interminable. Dad’s small car seemed to choke and stall up every hill and I came upon several fallen trees, requiring me to swerve to avoid them. My mind kept going to Tadgh and I had to wipe away tears so I could see the road before me.

Every time I thought of him lying there, alone in the raging wind, injured and with rain pelting down on him, tears streamed down my face. I imagined him crying out for help, his calls going unanswered until he was too weak to do so any more. Horrible images of his crushed, broken body filled my head. Intensive care meant his injuries were serious. I had tried phoning his younger brother Senan but there was no answer from his phone, and when I called the hospital nobody was able to give me an update on Tadgh’s condition.

Between my worry for him and the treacherous driving conditions, my heart felt as though it was in my mouth by the time I finally pulled into the car park of Limerick Hospital.

I parked the car at a jaunty angle compared to the ones around it, but I didn’t have time to worry about it. I hurried into the hospital building.

At the reception desk, I explained who I was but was told that, because I wasn’t a family member, they couldn’t give me an update on his condition. Instead I was directed to the intensive care waiting area.

I hurried along the rubber floor, where porters wheeled trolleys and nurses and doctors hurried past. When I reached the waiting room, I went inside. It was empty apart from a young, broad-chested man who was anxiously pacing the floor. He had the same jutting jawline and dark colouring as Tadgh, and I guessed it was his younger brother Senan. When I had last seen him, many years ago, he was a wiry child with sandy-coloured hair, but now he had grown into a well-built young man.

‘Senan?’ I asked.

He stopped pacing and looked at me.

‘I’m Penny Murphy. I don’t know if you remember me?’

‘Of course I do. Tadgh told me you were back in the village...’

‘How is he?’ I asked.

He shook his head. ‘No one will tell me.’ He began to pace once more. ‘He’s all I have left. If anything happens him...’ He broke off and his shoulders began to heave as tears took over. Senan and Tadgh had a bond stronger than that of most brothers. Tadgh had raised Senan from the age of six after their parents had died, and they were almost like father and son in many ways.

I walked over to him. Even though we barely knew one another, I couldn’t help putting my arms around him. ‘I’m sure he’ll be fine. You know what Tadgh is like – he’s the strongest man I know.’

‘You didn’t see him though, Penny... That tree – God, the size of it! It was so heavy; I couldn’t get it off him. He was just lying there, all b-b-broken and twisted...’ His face creased in pain. ‘I should have gone looking for him sooner. I just thought he was still in work, y’know? But then when the storm got really hairy, I began to worry. I know Tadgh is a workaholic and he thinks he’s invincible, but I knew even he wouldn’t stay out in that weather, so I decided to head out and see if I could track him down. That’s when I found him, lying near the bottom of the cliff path.’ He broke down in tears as he relived the memory.

‘That must have been awful for you, Senan.’

Suddenly a doctor in a white coat entered the room. Senan and I moved apart, each of us silently begging the man to give us the good news we so desperately wanted.

‘Are you the family of Tadgh O’Reilly?’ he asked.

I studied his face for an indication of the news he was about to deliver, but it remained impassive. I guessed he was used to keeping his composure when dealing with patients’ relatives.

Senan nodded. ‘I’m his brother and this is...’

‘Penny,’ I said, helping him out. ‘I’m ... er ... a friend.’

‘I’m Dr McGowan. Sorry it has taken me so long to get to you but, as you know, Tadgh sustained quite an injury. He’s just out of surgery and is currently stable. There is some swelling on his brain, so we’ve had to put him in an induced coma—’

‘Oh God,’ I whispered. This was worse than I thought.

‘We hope that this will give his brain time to rest, reducing the swelling and lessening the risk of any long-term effects. He also has two broken ribs, a punctured lung, a broken arm and a fracture on his skull,’ Dr McGowan said.

‘Just tell me, will he be okay, Doctor?’ Senan begged.

‘Unfortunately, I can’t answer that. We will start reducing the sedation shortly, in the hope that he will begin to wake up, but we won’t know the real extent of his injuries until then. For now, you must be prepared for every outcome. With an injury like the one Tadgh has sustained, there may be brain damage or even a spinal cord injury from the weight of the tree trunk that fell on him, which could result in paralysis. We’ve carried out scans which will give us a clearer picture and I will let you know once we have the results of those. I’m sorry I can’t give you any positive news right now, but it’s a waiting game until he wakes up and we know what we’re dealing with.’

I felt as if the air had been sucked out of me. There were so many things to consider that hadn’t even crossed my mind as I had driven to the hospital. I had spent so much time praying that Tadgh would still be alive, but I hadn’t thought about all the other things that could go wrong. Would he wake up as the Tadgh we knew and loved, or would he be changed forever by the accident?

‘You can see him now, if you would like,’ Dr McGowan went on.

Senan nodded and began to follow him.

‘You can come too,’ the doctor said, turning to me.

We followed Dr McGowan down a series of corridors until eventually we arrived at a dimly lit room. Tadgh lay covered up to his abdomen with a starched white sheet. His head was shaved on one side and blue-black bruising covered his chest. A bandage circled his head, and a cast covered his forearm. Everything in the room was perfectly still apart from the intermittent beeping of equipment that surrounded his bed. The realisation of where I was, and why I was here, hit me like a train.

‘You can sit with him a while,’ Dr McGowan said before excusing himself.

Senan and I took seats beside his bed. Tadgh was so tough: he surfed in the Atlantic in all weathers, he ran up and down the hills surrounding the village, barely breaking a sweat, so it was difficult to see him looking broken and vulnerable, wires trailing from his body as he lay in the hospital bed. I was afraid to touch him in case I set off an alarm or did something to endanger him.

‘You can hold his hand if you like,’ the nurse attending him encouraged us, as if reading my mind.

I looked at Senan. He nodded that it was okay. I reached out for Tadgh’s broad hand. Dark hairs peppered his tanned skin. My movements were delicate at first but when I felt the warmth of his skin against mine, I was reassured and encased his hand fully inside my own.

Come on, Tadgh, I begged him. I’m here. You have to wake up.