Fundraiser after Fiona is left paralysed in freak fall

A COUPLE in their mid-50s, who had recently married and embarked on their ‘happy ever after’ in West Cork, are now spending their days in the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dublin.

Aidan Foley spoke to The Southern Star about Monday January 8th, the day he collected his wife, Fiona, from her place of work, Skibbereen Family Resource Centre in Skibbereen, and they went to their rented home, Mall Cottage, in Castletownshend.

Fiona, who felt she couldn’t get warm went straight to bed, and Aidan didn’t know anything more until their two dogs Fiona’s cocker spaniel Cloe and Aidan’s labrador Bueller started howling like wolves.

Aidan found Fiona on the floor. She had got out of bed to turn off an appliance when she fainted and banged her head off the wall.

In falling, Fiona twisted her neck, severely damaging her C5 and C6 vertebrae.

A stricken Aidan was told there was going to be a delay with the ambulance but a friend, Mark Salter-Townshend, brought a relative, a retired GP, and they did what they could to stabilise Fiona who was having difficulty breathing.

Although the three-hour wait for the ambulance was horrible, Aidan described how the crew, and indeed the local fire brigade personnel, were amazing and by 12.30am Fiona was being cared for at Cork University Hospital.

When the hospital consultant saw the MRI, he cancelled his elective procedures. His priority was to help Fiona breathe again unassisted because her lungs were not functioning and he spent more than eight hours putting metal plates in place to stabilise her spine.

The couple, who met at the start of Covid, and moved in together shortly after, each having found the love of their lives, were told that everything from the breastbone down is paralysed.

Fiona’s injury was classified as an incomplete C, which is a fracture rather than a break so there is no way of knowing how much recovery is possible, but they are hoping, and working on, creating new neural pathways.

Superman actor Christopher Reeve, had, by contrast, a complete C injury, in which everything was severed permanently.

At just over 5ft, Fiona is, according to Aidan, a tiny, incredibly healthy and strong person, who has lived all of her life with dignity and a positive mental attitude. He says he, at 6ft tall, resembles his dog – ‘a lumbering idiot’ – the kind of guy who will take two days of antibiotics and then quit.

Fiona and Aidan on their wedding day.

Aidan said all this to explain how adept Fiona is at facing whatever challenges life throws at her, and doing all that she can to improve her situation. ‘She is good at looking after herself and following the right course to being healthy but the biggest challenge she has right now is being vulnerable.’

After more than two months in the neurology ward in CUH, where she underwent a lot of intensive rehab and physiotherapy, Fiona was transferred to the National Rehabilitation Hospital on April 7th.

Aidan, who moved to Dublin, where he is staying in a family home in Bray, described how the three-phase intensive therapy, over a three-month period, happens all day, every day, and into the evenings.

The couple, both aged 54, don’t, as yet, have a prognosis, but they are accepting of the fact that Fiona will never go back to the person she was on January 8th and a wheelchair will certainly be part of her life.

‘Fiona loved her life before the accident and she said she still loves her life, but we did think we were getting our happy ever after,’ said Aidan, who explained that after their October 2023 marriage they were about to embark on a search for their forever home in West Cork.

‘There are days when Fiona is naturally beaten by it and the sheer scale of her injury, but, for now, it is all about security,’ he said.

‘Fiona wasn’t skydiving or doing extreme sports. She fell in her bedroom, so, for now, our plan is to stay in Bray for the next six to 12 months so she can attend as an outpatient.’

In order to do that, they must first convert part of their house into a suitably equipped bedroom and wet room. And that is where the people at Skibbereen Family Resource Centre, Caring Hands, and Fiona’s brother, Anthony Morrissey, stepped in.

They created a GoFundMe page called ‘Support Fiona’s Recovery from a Major Spinal Cord Injury’ with a €125,000 target.

People have been generous and, at the time of going to press, €46,652 has been raised – a figure for which Aidan and Fiona are extremely grateful.

‘We are private people. We don’t like going cap in hand but the reality is we have no choice,’ said Aidan, who is part of a climate action company. ‘We are facing massive costs at a time when the ability to generate money has fallen off a cliff.’

The couple, who are originally from Cork, had lived in Ardmore and Bray before discovering that West Cork offered them a deep sense of community and connection, are still planning to return … someday soon.