Young Offaly woman's story of urgent surgery

Daingean woman Emma O'Connor has spoken about her traumatic experience last year when a MRI revealed that she had three bulging disks.

When playing camogie with her Dad, five years ago Emma bent down with a hurl and heard a crack in her back. Following this she went to A&E and had an X-ray but nothing showed up. She said "in March 2021, I went for a shower and the way that I got out caused my back to go into spasm. It locked and I couldn’t move at all."

At the time Emma was told that she would just need physiotherapy. “One day when I stretched my back, I heard a popping sound and things got worse from there. It became painful for me to get up from sitting down and I ended up not being able to walk for more than ten minutes.

“I got my second MRI in early December and when the specialist looked at the scans, she told me to go straight to A&E. When I got to A&E, the doctor told me that my disk had slipped, that I would need surgery and that if I had waited any longer, I could have been paralysed from the waist down. It was such a shock that I burst into tears.”

Emma was first seen in Tullamore Hospital and then transferred to the Mater for her surgery.

Emma said “Before I knew it I was being transferred to the Mater and the next morning they took me down to surgery. When I woke up it was a bit of a shock seeing all of the wires attached to me but they assured me that the surgery went well. The staff were all so lovely, they were so helpful and so empathetic. It was hard being there without my family because of Covid-19 but they really made me feel like I wasn’t so alone.”

Emma was in her fourth year of studying a Bachelor's degree in Software Development in Carlow when she had to get the surgery but has deferred to focus on recuperation and will go back for her final year in autumn 2022.

According to Emma, her recovery has been slow but she's a completely different person now. “I was in the Mater for 3 days and then my local hospital for another four days.”

“I do remember when I took my first walk after the surgery though and just how relieved I felt. I don't know where I'd be if I didn’t have the surgery and I am just so thankful to all the staff in the Mater for helping me through such a tough time and bringing me back to health.”