A hero’s welcome home
Over four months of agonising worry was swept away in a sea of joy and tears when 80-year old Joe Kelly left Birr Community Nursing Unit this week to return to his family home in Killeigh after defeating the deadly Covid-19 virus.
“He is our miracle man and our hero,” declared his daughter, Jackie Kinahan, who added that her Dad is also Killeigh’s newest celebrity after his miraculous recovery!
Joe certainly received a celebrity welcome when he arrived back in Killeigh on Tuesday afternoon, with family, friends and neighbours lining the roads to wave and clap as he was driven home after his long spell in hospital.
For Ann, his wife of almost 54 years, the return home of her beloved husband was “a miracle that we never thought would happen” according to Jackie, who says the family were given “a 50-50 chance” of Joe surviving Covid after he was admitted to the Midlands Regional Hospital in Tullamore on January 25 last with what he initially thought was a kidney infection.
“He was transferred to Tullamore by ambulance and immediately admitted to the Intensive Care Unit with Covid pneumonia,” recalls Jackie. Joe Kelly spent a total of 51 days in Intensive Care where he had to be ventilated twice, and so serious was his condition that he had to have a tracheostomy performed to aid the ventilation process which left him unable to speak.
“Dad came out of Intensive Care on St Patrick’s Day, which was a great day for all of us, and he went into the High Dependency Unit before being transferred to the Medical 2 wing in the hospital where he had to learn how to walk and talk again,” says Jackie.
Jackie and her siblings, Tina, Amanda and John cannot speak highly enough of the wonderful care their Dad received from Dr McCormack and the medical team in Tullamore Hospital. “The staff in ICU were just amazing,” says Jackie. “On the bad days they were there to console us and on the good days they were there to celebrate with us, they became like our family, as they were our link to Dad.”
The entire Kelly family were living “from phonecall to phonecall” in the early days of their Dad’s Covid battle, and Jackie Kinahan says the staff “never once refused to take a call” despite the fact that the hospital was battling the full force of the post-Christmas third wave of Covid-19, and staff were literally “run off their feet” she says.
“We had to pull the positives from a lot of negatives, especially in the early days,” points out Jackie Kinahan, who says all the medical staff, including the care assistants and other staff, both in Tullamore Hospital and also the Camcor Unit in Birr Community Nursing Home (where Joe Kelly spent five weeks receiving intensive rehabilitation) went “over and above the call of duty” in looking after him.
“We could never, ever, thank them enough,” she adds.
Joe Kelly worked in Killeshal Precast Concrete for 31 years, and Jackie says his former work colleagues along with friends, neighbours and extended family from far and near were praying hard for his recovery. “There were so many Masses and prayers said and we got so many phonecalls, the kindness of everyone has been just hard to take in.”
As he settles into the family home after his long Covid battle, Joe Kelly is happy to be showered with affection by his ten grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, who range in age from one to eight years.
“He is a real success story, but it could have so easily been a story without a happy ending,” observes his daughter Jackie, who adds that her father is “so happy to be able to sit in the porch and read the local papers with a nice cup of tea.”