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BIG P. SCHALER. PADDY.
Pádraig Schaler’s friends call him by a few nicknames, testament to the 23-year-old Trinity student’s popularity and outgoing personality.
These days, he’s on his friends’ minds a lot. It’s because of one fateful morning last summer, Thursday 27 June, when Pádraig was on his way to work in Cape Cod.
People passing the young Irishman as he cycled by would have seen a happy guy, with floppy brown hair. Like all students on a J1 visa to the US, he was having a summer of fun, adventure, and new experiences.
He had just finished his Irish and History degree at Dublin’s Trinity College, and was deciding on what to do next. His life stretched out before him, and his choices must have seemed countless.
But at 10am that morning, his life changed in an instant when a 4.3 ton truck knocked him off his bike.
Next steps
The fall sent him into a coma. His parents, Reinhard Schaler and Pat O’Byrne, flew to Cape Cod to be by their only son’s bedside in hospital.
He was soon moved back home to Ireland, leaving behind a large hospital bill that the family hope can be paid through insurance. Pádraig’s new hospital bed was at Beaumont Hospital, but his family were told that their treasured son needed intensive neurological rehabilitation.
Pádraig’s family, unhappy with the options open to them in Ireland, decided to move him to Germany. It cost €12,000 for the air ambulance transport.
They spoke to TheJournal.ie about their choice, and their disappointment in Ireland’s health system.
Germany
“You read it in the paper, you never think it will happen to you. The reality is it can happen to you or anybody at any time” – Reinhard Schaler
Pádraig has been in Germany since November, where he was immediately started on intensive neurological care. In Ireland, his parents say, he would have had to wait a year for this treatment.
“There’s three beds in the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dublin and usually patients get in there for three months,” explained his father. “In the meantime they stay while they are waiting in an acute hospital.”
The Schalers have made contact with four other families in similar situations.
“A lot of them don’t speak up because they are in Ireland – people are a little bit fearful to give out [as it] might have repercussions,” said Schaler.
The families told them it was “so heartbreaking just trying to access treatment”, with some paying for treatment for their loved ones themselves.
People have told Pádraig’s mother, Pat, that they are afraid to speak out about their situation. “That to me is the whole tragedy,” she said.
Rehab in Ireland
The family are shocked that Pádraig would have only been entitled to three months in rehab in Ireland.
“They say its a matter of money, and funds. It’s not – it’s a matter of priorities,” said Reinhard.
If you don’t look after the most vulnerable people in society, what kind of society is that?
He said the German hospital is much better equipped and the health system there is better than in Ireland, but the choice to bring Pádraig to Germany was not an easy one.
“Pádraig has a real love of the Irish language,” said his proud father of his gaelgeoir son. “One of the things that we thought would be really difficult was he was going to be removed from his friends.”
Pat described it as “agony” to see what happens to “somebody who was so vivacious and perfect”.
Not being able to communicate with their son “just makes it so much more difficult than a physical ailment”, said Pat. “The progress is incredibly slow.”
With Pádraig’s condition worsening, the family tried to find a solution. Thanks to being half German and half Irish, he was able to get into a German hospital.
A new life
They continue to deal with the reality of their new life. The parents still have their jobs in Ireland, and rent an apartment in Germany. They have two daughters back in Ireland.
“At moment, with fundraising we’re not in debt but we are coping,” said Reinhard. “Thanks to all the support from all our families.”
Enda Kenny
Reinhard was so enraged by his son’s situation, and what he sees as a lack of interest on behalf of the Irish government, that he wrote an open letter to Taoiseach Enda Kenny:
As the parents of a child in a coma, or to be more precise a minimally conscious state, we can tell you that “this broken health system” has not just failed our son but has also torn apart our family. It forced Pádraig out of the country he loves more than any other, away from his friends, and the language and culture he so deeply cherishes.
“I don’t know how stupid they think people are,” said Reinhard of the people running Ireland’s health system. “I don’t understand how they can sleep at night when they know that is happening to people.”
We thought that if anything happened to any of us the State would look after us, the health system would be there to help us. It’s not the case at all. It’s really, really horrific. It’s something that I really don’t understand how they can keep telling us… Reilly is saying that they’re cutting out of the budget and health care is going to get better. It’s beyond a joke, to me it’s criminal.
“What they basically do is they forget about you,” said Reinhard of people in his son’s position.
Milestones
At the hospital in Germany, Pádraig’s tiny triumphs are huge milestones.
We ask him to squeeze his hand – he can do that now. We ask him to move his foot, he can move his foot. He is not just moving but doing that when we ask him to do it. He can understand what we are saying. He is out of this locked in deep coma that he was in when we left.
Such a terrible situation has highlighted the good they have in their lives: the supportive friends and family members. They have experienced an “outpouring of goodwill”.
“People who have never been on a plane, have never been in Germany, are coming over [to visit Pádraig],” said his dad.
“There is some satisfaction that he is getting treatment. For people at home, it must be very frustrating,” said his mother.
The family keep regular updates on the site CaringforPadraig, while Reinhard writes about his experiences on his own blog.
They have also put together three “simple steps of action” that they believe would greatly improve Ireland’s health system.
Determined, hopeful, and focused, the family will continue to fight for their son, and all those who find themselves in the care of Ireland’s health system.
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Let’s hope it is historically accurate !!!
@ Dario Fo
i wish the slab (and all the other IRA enablers) were on the slab
Enda – there has been enough killing in our short history since partition – so encourage the option of peace !
I hope its historical accurate too, the uprising was very unpopular at the start and there were boos and Jeers outside the GPO when the Rebels first made an appearance.
Will make a change from Downturn Abbey over the Christmas period……
Enda was done more harm to this country and it’s people, than the IRA ever did. How many killed themselves due to government policy and decision making??
@ Cllr Malachy Quinn
peace while we sweep murder and abuse under the rug? no thanks
This will be a godsend for the Late Late, RTE radio and all the other RTE talk shows. We’ll see the actors, directors, camera crew etc etc interviewed endlessly. RTE “celebrities” interviewing RTE staff. That’s what passes for entertainment in Montrose
Looks like a great cast and great to Irish actresses taking the lead.
Sarah Greene won a Tony award on Broadway and Bradley is a brilliant theatrical actress – hope the script is good enough for them.
Ah Broadway…. Theatre… I’d rather wait until the actors are good enough for the films before going to see them.
As critical as I am of rte this Looks like a quality programme, if it has the same amount of debt and interest as love/hate it should be good.
Debt and interest have this country in the dire straits it currently is! The 1916 revolutionaries will be turning in their graves, unless of course NAMA have sold them off
Charlie Murphy you beauty.
RTE production so I’m expecting Enda to be fighting in the GPO bravely for his country
Ha ha Enda would be found hiding under Merkels skirt more like.
Mammy Merkel to enda
“RTE production so I’m expecting Enda to be fighting in the GPO bravely for his country”
In my best theatrical trailer voiceover tone…..
“They died so that Apple could avoid tax”
…..And so slab could pay it like the rest of us, but no. And look who’s defending him.
Imagine if the 1916 rising never took place. We’d probably have had a vote and our independence by now.
There is a rumor, Merkel & Ends are into bondage Joan has been dumped (apparently because she’s useless)
will Brian do for 1916 what his father Brendan did for Martin Cahill ?
@ Paul Mc
was that before or after he closed down the Vatican embassy ?
I’m looking forward to now I must say. Hopefully the start of a good year of remembrance.
Lads do ye have nothing better to do only to connect every story with the government? Could ye not spend you’re time more productively like getting on with things!
Another classic in dumbed down schmaltz from the masters of Montrose.
Fair City with gunfire.
I’ve been clean of RTE for 12 years. Life is better without it. Irish TV is only for those in nursing homes.
Oooh, sounds exciting….anytime I’ve seen Fair City I always found myself thinking that it could only be enhanced by the addition of heavy artillery.
The only people who watch RTE these days are rural folk with no broadband option.
There’s always options. Read a book, have a game of scrabble or naked twister if you’re not in the mood for rooting around in a bag of tiles hoping for a ‘u’ to sort out that ‘q’.
The birth of our nation through the blood sacrifice of heroic men who gave their lives for our freedom.
The historical enormity of the moment.
The course of Irish history altered forever.
And RTE treats the nation to a soap drama about the love life of a civil servant called May.
From Cork.
Would you feel better if he was from Waterford , Tommy ?
Tommy why did you change your surname again ?
Have to agree, tuned in via their app. Like watching Groundhog Day, same people since the station opened in the 50`s. Zzzzzzzzzz. The only good thing they have is the News and they have cobwebs, saying the same thing year in year out. Zzzzzzzzz
Shh!
(I was excommunicated)
Ah red thumbs relax I was only winding Tommy up , I actually find his comments very interesting .
Sorry Tommy , I’ll keep it a secret from now on ….
@ Tommy When you refer to “the birth of our nation”, I hope you remember that the Republic envisaged by the men amd women of 1916 has yet to be attained. None of them went out and gave their lifeblood in order to win a 26 county state or a partitioned country. Tom Clarke, the main organiser of the Rising, from Dungannon, Co. Tyrone, didn’t go out and fight for Co. Tyrone’s right to be partitioned from the rest of his nation. Such a shame that the country’s continuing partition is the real big, shameful ‘elephant in the room’ of the state’s 1916 commemorations.
The opening scenes have a 12 year old Nidge selling snuff outside the GPO.
will they murder cats with rifles that require wadding paper and musket balls ?
Saw a few adverts for this new show, the quality looks awful. RTE made a great series in 1966 called ‘Insurrection’ based on the events of Easter week. Once the Troubles broke out they never aired the series again.
I remember watching Insurrection when it aired, scripted I think, by Hugh Leonard. The reason they never showed it again (I think) is because they didn’t keep the tapes, it had nothing to do with “the troubles” in Northern Ireland ? Especially as RTE during the 70′s was virtually controlled by SF/IRA sympathisers.
why don’t RTE broadcast THE TREATY a movie with Brendan Gleeson ?
its a better mick collins film than the one with liam neeson
“Especially as RTE during the 70′s was virtually contolled by SF/IRA”. I’ve read some remarkable statements on this site over time, but that one takes the biscuit. To claim that RTÉ were ever a bastion of the provisional movement takes fantasy to proportions usually reserved for hollywood blockbuster script writers. This is the same organisation that, in the era Dermot mentions, was under the restriction of Section 31, a piece of state media censorship legialation introduced solely to stiffle Sinn Féin and a piece of media censorship that RTÉ would later go to the supreme court over, in order to argue for the right to further limit on IT’S OWN freedom of speech. This is the same RTÉ which, to basically every holistorian in the land, was described as having been infiltrated in the early 70′s by the Workers party, a group most viciously, bitterly anti-SF as anyone else at the time. This is the same RTÉ which, in 1973, was openly condemned by the National Union of Journalists for consistently toeing the government line on all “security” issues…in other words, on matters relating to the conflict. This is the same RTÉ which neglected to examine accusations of British state involvement in the Dublin/Monagahan bombs in 1974. This is the same RTÉ which, for the most part of the 70′s, ignored the miscarriages of justice imposed upon the Birmingham Six and others, lest they appear to be seen as associating themselves to closely with a cause which at the time was uniting nationalism/republicanism behind it. This is the same RTÉ who’s journalist Kevin O’Kelly was first fired, then jailed, for disobeying Section 31, when he broadcasted an audio recording of IRA Chief of Staff, Sean Mac Stiofain, without identifying that this was who’s voice it was on the tape. This is the same RTÉ which, as of 1973, came under the responsibilty of Conor Cruise O’Brien, a man synonymous with his hatred of Sinn Féin, the IRA, republicanism in general, and his deeply partitionost beliefs. A man who, in 1973, installed an entirely new RTÉ authority staff, and implemembted a regime under which it was later noted that those who didn’t toe the anti-Republican and partitionist line, with full obedience of section 31, were ‘sent to agriculture, religious or childrens broadcasting departmemts’. Honestly Dermot, that is a simply astonishingly illinformed remark which just beggars belief.
Incredibly factual tír Eoghain.
Saw some of it being filmed near smith field markets a couple of months back
So what
Wow Graham , how interesting please tell us more.
The start of the road that led to the bank bail out.
Looks like it’s worth watching
Was lucky enough to see it the other night, it’s going to be a very influential series. Some excellent performances, the set and costumes are very accurate and from what I could gather from the first episode is that whilst the characters are fictionalised it seemed very historically accurate. The Citizen Army, Liberty Hall, the Feminist Activists, the Volunteers, the Irish who fought in WW1, the Home Rulers and Dublin Castle all were well portrayed. I can see a longer series taking in the War of Independence and the Civil War as a possibility.
It definitely looks very well done,looking forward to it :). Hopefully they do take up a longer series going into the Irish War of Independence & Civil War.Thanks for the insight aswell.
@ Sen James Heffernan
true for you
It is very perverse that those who claim to want a united Ireland are the same people who profit from the existence of the border
Enda a United Ireland is inevitable
Sen James Heffernan – once a Shinner always a Shinner !
Definitely worth reading through:
http://trinitynews.ie/1916-still-poses-a-dilemma-for-the-government-parties-and-fianna-fail/
“……Perhaps during freshers’ week you snapped a selfie with the hijacked Shinner at the Young Fine Gael stand. A cardboard cutout of a former IRA director of intelligence: the architect of the killings of at least 70 suspected British intelligence officers in Dublin; the creator of a ruthless IRA assassination unit, “The Squad”; the man who masterminded the IRA’s finances for three years, funnelling about $6 million into its coffers, and the man who said of suspected spies and agents, “[b]y their destruction the very air is made sweeter. For myself, my conscience is clear.” Young Fine Gael proudly present the one, the only, the highly respectable Mr Michael Collins, Sinn Féin TD for Armagh (that’s probably foreign country to Fine Gael), 1921-22.
This coming year, the words of Connolly are especially apt. “Apostles of Freedom are ever idolised when dead, but crucified when living.” ”
1916 was good,The War of Idependence was good,Nelson Mandela and the ANC was good…..but actually, what happened up there, was All bad -It can’t be one way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3Qb3iRb4I0
Lets not forget that 1916 also saw the Battle of the Somme, I wonder how the series will portray that.
#ShinnerPorn
Ha ha watch the shinnerbots red thumb that one. The comrades will burn the thumbs clean off themselves signing in and out of their bogus Twitter and Facebook accounts. When are ye breaking up for Christmas shinnerbots or are ye going to haunt every story on the Journal over the hols as per every other day. What are the instructions from the Army Command on this?
Lads!
SF don’t own the word republican and the rights to the 1916 celebrations!
1916 is a celebration for all citizens of this country!!
Yes mcgoo/Thomas/Dane/patjoejoe/Diarmuid/Man of Ireland……they will bring all their account to bear on this!
‘Haunt every article’ you brought it up.
1916 celebrations for all the citizens of this Ancient proud Island called Ireland, (if the want)
have you got a problem with that?
@ Ciaran
the human sewage also known as the IRA will sing songs in 2016
@Ciaran Sinn Féin organise annual Rising Commemorations in each and every county, each and every year. If it appears to you that Sinn Féin are the only ones who link themselves to the Rising, it’s probably down to the fact that Sinn Féin commemorate it each and every year, not just every few decades on just one side of the border and done just for the tv cameras, like the brave patriots of FF/FG. “There’s panic down in Leinster House, where words are seldom scarce; “Send someone to glasnevin quick to remember Padraig Pearse!”". Apt lyrics of a song which sum up the self-serving nature of FG/FF’s borrowed pride in the Rising leaders, and the fact that it would not surprise if the most of them belived Pearse were buried in Glasnevin rather than Arbour Hill.
Delighted to hear Ms Panti is playing Maud Gonne
I’ll set the recorder.
There’s no such thing as ‘Independence’, it’s just an exchange of power.
another boring RTE drama. Glad I don’t have it.
Before you’ve seen it… Wow
@ Dave barrett
will it be like the wind that shakes the bbbaaaaarrrrrr leyyyyyyyy like
the one they shot down in CCCCoooorrrrrrrrrrr kkkkkkkkkkkk
Looking forward to it. It’ll be a keepy… :-)
Great to see John Connors in there, I look forward to seeing this
@ Micheál Ó Braonáin
well that’s a lovely story
another sad waste of film, please someone with half a brain and an iphone get something with at least a smidgen of life
With ads for some diesel guzzler every 10 mins …?
Hope RTÉ haven’t spent ‘customers’ money on glorifying the bloodletting of 100 years ago.
@ Rodger 5
was it Joe Duffy or someone else said that 3 out of 5 lives lost that week were irish
And many children died also… I wouldn’t get too carried away with the romance of events.
@ Stephen Duffy
its not enough to enable murder abroad, we have to celebrate murder at home
Hope it’s better than charlie. ..that was pure shite tbh
Some points worth noting about these 1916 leaders:
James Connolly-born in Scotland, spoke with a Scottish accent
Constance Markievicz-English
De Valera-American Cuban, possibly an Ashkenazi Jew, unconfirmed.
Not a great review… But here’s hoping…
When Bertie suggested suicide for those who couldn’t keep up with life under his guidance the suicide rates escalated leading to more deaths the following year than ever. It hasn’t gotten any better and Bertie should keep his big mouth shut forever. He has done more damage than the rising and I hope it is on his headstone “Here lies Bertie the Prime Minister who promoted Suicide”
I heard there is no women in it, sure there were no women back then!
In this version maybe the good Republicans pull off a Northern Bank style robbery of the GPO.
Well done to whoever brought along the potato to take the shot of them on set.
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