Help Ciara Get Home To Her Family

Hi, our names are Caroline and Caitriona. We are setting up this GoFundMe on behalf of our sister-in-law Ciara, my brother Robert and their daughter Lily, to help ease the money worries that have arisen as a result of Ciara's medical emergency and journey to get her home. While a health and medical issue is devastating enough to a family, none of us anticipated the additional financial burdens that occur as a result.

Please see a message from our brother Rob telling Ciara's story and how much your help would mean.

"On Sunday the 18th of December our world was shattered when I realised my wife was seriously ill. She had been sick in bed with the flu and when I found her coughing up blood, I rang an ambulance. When she arrived in the hospital in the early hours of the morning she was fighting for her life. I was told she had contracted the flu, Strep A and pneumonia. The bacteria had entered her bloodstream and caused her internal organs to fail, causing multiple organ failure. We were told by the consultants that she was the sickest person in Ireland.

On the second day I was told that, in the experts professional opinion, Ciara was not going to survive and I had to bring my daughter up to say goodbye. The following day, Ciara had turned a corner and began a never-ending and slow road to recovery. To facilitate this recovery they had to use very strong medication that kept the blood around her heart and away from her hands and feet.

She was sedated for 2 weeks to allow her body to fight and then woke to a completely different reality. She spent a further 4 weeks in ICU and was then moved to a respiratory ward to await the inevitable surgery.

On Thursday 9th of March 2023, Ciara had a double below-the-knee amputation of both her feet and had the thumb and tips of her other fingers on her right hand removed. This was as a result of the sepsis she had and the medication that was used to help her live. Unbelievably, this was the best result compared to what I had been previously told by the professionals. She will need future surgeries on her arm and we are not sure if she will regain mobility in her right hand at the moment.

After Ciara recovers from surgery she will go to the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dun Laoighaire. As she recovers I find myself trying to figure out how to get everything ready both in adaptations to our home and how to get a car suited for her needs.

As I do this, we are trying to comprehend this with the realisation that my lovely wife now has severe disabilities and that my family's world has been changed forever. Some day in the future we hope that she will be able to use prosthetics but, social workers and occupational therapists have said that she will still need to use a wheelchair for the rest of her life.

I know that this is all awful and trust me, this has been a never-ending nightmare of four months so far, but I know that I am lucky that she is still alive and she is very loved by myself, her daughter Lily and all her family and mine.

As of today, Easter Sunday, Ciara is in hospital 112 days. We still have a long way to go, as I said above, she will need more surgery before she can go to the Rehabilitation Hospital. As I plan the home adaptations and vehicle needed, I am hoping to get any assistance from this GoFundMe so that, when Ciara is ready to come home, I will be ready to bring her home.

Thank you."

The overwhelming support, love and prayers that have been shown so far are gratefully appreciated and have helped us all through the worst of days. In the past few weeks we have been approached by a lot of people wanting to help out financially and with fund-raising, a GoFundMe was suggested as a way to allow people to do this.

This illness came out of nowhere from such a simple thing as the flu and has changed their lives, any help or assistance that you can give to help them bring Ciara home and get back to some sort of new normal is appreciated and very gratefully received.

Thank you

Caroline and Caitriona Carrick