Kerry ladies ace Fiadhna Tangney and her family have endured an horrific month but after 25 days of her father being in an induced coma, he may be turning the corner.
Five-weeks on from reporting coronavirus symptoms, Gene Tangney (55) is still on a ventilator at Tralee General Hospital’s Covid-19 ICU.
But Fiadhna hopes the worst is behind the family.
The 19-year-old, a second year student of Sport and Exercise Science at UL, said: “Over the last few days I suppose he has been showing slight improvements. He is still on a ventilator, still in the induced coma.
"He is on day 25 now but since last Tuesday he has been showing slight improvements every day.
“Up until then he was up and down. We got a few phone calls along the way saying maybe things aren’t looking too great. But at the moment, thank God, everything seems to be going in the right direction.
“We haven’t seen him since he went in to hospital, which is the toughest part. We can’t go over to see him, they don’t want anyone going into the hospital, which is understandable.
“The nurses are great, they are doing calls for us. We get to ring them twice a day. They gave us a couple of video calls just to see him. Obviously he wasn’t conscious, but we got to see him.
“The nurses think it will be at least another week before he is off the ventilator.
“We couldn’t speak highly enough of the staff in Tralee. I think Dad is quite lucky, because he is the only patient in the Covid unit in Tralee. He is getting all the attention of the nurses and all the best of care that we could possibly ask for.”
