Читать книгу Siobhan's Miracle - They Told Us She Had Weeks to Live. Then the Most Amazing Miracle Happened - Ellen & Derek Jameson - Страница 11

Early in 2007 the cancer returned. Siobhán travelled several times between Belfast and the Royal Marsden Hospital in London. Eventually her health deteriorated to the point where doctors insisted she was no longer fit to fly. Her treatment was transferred to Belfast City Hospital and her day-to-day care taken over by a local GP, Dr Susan McGarrity.

‘The notes and letter I received from the Marsden,’ says Dr McGarrity, ‘made it pretty plain that Siobhán’s disease was now terminal. There was really nothing more they could do for her. She had been apprised of the situation.

‘The Marsden proposed a series of treatment which would include radiotherapy and chemotherapy, but those would not halt the disease – only keep her comfortable.’

Siobhán had been warned that the disease was likely to spread to her brain and a course of radiotherapy was planned to slow down its progress. She did not live long enough to have this treatment, and thank God her mental faculties were not unduly affected.

Dr McGarrity remembers clearly the first time she went to visit Siobhán at her home in south Belfast. ‘Knowing the seriousness of her illness and the late stage she had entered, I was surprised to find her up and about. The family had just acquired a new Labrador puppy, Ruby, and I was amazed that Siobhán was capable of controlling her.’

The melanoma Siobhán had suffered seven years previously had returned and, despite radical breast surgery, the cancer had now spread to her lungs.

‘Reading the notes, it was apparent that the disease had taken the same course as previously, first melanoma and then attacking the lungs,’ explains Dr McGarrity.

‘The medical notes from the Marsden did state that there had been a query over the progress of the disease seven years before. Seems that it had regressed of its own accord – there was no mention in the notes of any possible interventions – divine or otherwise.’

Dr McGarrity describes Siobhán as a most unusual woman. ‘She really was a special kind of person. Certainly I wasn’t used to meeting anyone quite so articulate. On one occasion she talked to me about her disease. She painted a graphic picture.’

Siobhán told the doctor, ‘I feel like my body is an apple and every day there are more and more black spots and bruising. Soon my whole body will be covered.’

Being almost the same age as Siobhán and a mother herself, Dr McGarrity admits that she held a particular affection for her. There was also a more personal reason: the doctor’s own husband had also been diagnosed with cancer. He and Siobhán were undergoing treatment at the same time. Dr McGarrity, while discussing Siobhán, revealed that he was ‘very poorly’.

‘Siobhán’s disease had gathered momentum,’ she says, ‘and as she got more sick, she seemed to gain more strength. Her strength of character and resilience meant that she remained positive up to the end – though she did know she was dying.

‘She had an acceptance of that fact and never shied away from discussing what would happen to the family after she had gone. Her concerns were always for the husband Peter and the children, Oscar and Constance.

‘Her attitude was impressive,’ says the doctor, who all too often these days is confronted with patients losing their battle against cancer. She offers this insight, ‘I honestly don’t believe Siobhán was afraid of dying. She was a girl of remarkable faith. She accepted her fate and in our discussions no avenues were closed.

‘She was intelligent and open; she heard what was said about the upcoming stages of the disease. The Marsden had suggested she might have between nine and eighteen months. Siobhán never asked me to be more specific. In the event she lived for just another four months.’

Siobhán was admitted to Belfast City Hospital’s Cancer Centre in Holy Week 2007.

‘We took her in for some pain management and specialist nursing,’ Dr McGarrity explains. ‘It was expected that she would return home and the plan would have been to arrange hospice care as she got nearer the end. The end came suddenly, but I know Siobhán died with great dignity and courage.’

Nurses on the ward at the Cancer Centre, trained to deal with dying patients, were also struck by Siobhán’s level of acceptance.

On the day she died, at noon on Easter Saturday, 7 April, one of the nurses put her thoughts into words. ‘Siobhán slipped away peacefully into the arms of God – he refused to let her suffer any longer.’

Now that we have traced the course of Siobhán’s final years through the memories of those close to her, let us look at her experience as she recounts it in her own words. Each of the remaining chapters closes with an extract from Siobhán’s Story.