After tense hours spent at his father's bedside, a visibly relieved Mr Sean Haughey TD emerged from Beaumont Hospital last night to announce that the patient was on the road to recovery.
Eighteen hours after the 75-year-old former Taoiseach was rushed to hospital by ambulance with a life threatening heart condition, his son reported that he was "in good form and able to crack a joke or two".
He said some nurses had mentioned to his father earlier that there was a problem with the rhythm of his heart beat. Showing that his sense of humour was as robust as ever, Mr Haughey wriggled in the bed and quipped: "Well, I always had good rhythm."
The former Fianna Fail leader was resuscitated by medical staff in the hospital at 1 a.m. yesterday after collapsing at this home in Kinsealy, north Dublin. He was brought by ambulance to Accident and Emergency, and spent most of the day heavily sedated and on a breathing machine in the intensive care unit.
His wife, Maureen, and children were by his side, along with an anaesthetist, a consultant and several gardai. The intensive care unit, at the rear of the hospital, had a "no entry" sign in large red letters at the entrance. Before being admitted to the unit, visitors were requested to phone ahead using a nearby wall-mounted telephone.
The hospital's florist shop was closed during yesterday's bank holiday, but hospital staff said no flowers would have been permitted in the sterile unit anyway. Visitors or patients who wished to say a prayer for Mr Haughey could have used the hospital's spacious and serene chapel.
Reporters took over a room near the entrance from early morning as word spread among patients, staff and visitors that Mr Haughey was being treated in the hospital in his former political constituency of Dublin North Central. He had officiated at the opening of the hospital while he was in government.
One man and his mother seated in the foyer waiting area were sympathetic. "The man is ill and I wish him well," said the son.
Another Dublin man, however, was bitter that Mr Haughey seemed to be getting "red carpet" treatment while his father had spent three nights on a trolley in Accident and Emergency due to bed shortages.
Mr Brian Singleton claimed his father, Tommy (61), who has an inoperable brain tumour, was moved to a ward at 4 a.m. last Saturday only after his wife threatened to take him home. The former engineer was brought to the hospital at 3 p.m. last Wednesday, and was told he was "on the priority list" for getting a bed, according to his son.
Mr Singleton, who came close to tears as he spoke, told journalists the differences in how the two men were treated highlighted the State's two-tiered health system. His father, an engineer, had been decent and honourable and paid all his taxes, he said.
Information on Mr Haughey's condition was sketchy during the day. Shortly after 11 a.m. the hospital's general manager, Mr Liam Duffy, announced that the patient had a "serious life threatening cardiac condition" and was in a critical but stable condition. Reporters were told he would be assessed throughout the day and that a further statement would be issued at 8 p.m.
By early afternoon, staff said efforts were being made to take Mr Haughey off the ventilation machine which assisted his breathing with a tube in his mouth. For about four hours there was no update. Then Mr Sean Haughey emerged in upbeat mood, saying "things are looking good".
He said the ventilator had been removed, allowing his father to breath normally again. It appeared that he did not actually have a heart attack, but "a cardiac problem in relation to an irregularity in the heart", he said. He expected that he would be moved from the intensive care unit to the coronary care unit today.
"He is critical but stable, but has made splendid progress all day . . . I am not a medical person but the doctors seem to think that he will not have a relapse, that he is on the road to recovery," said Mr Haughey.
His father had been in "good spirits" over the weekend, and was happy to have his evidence to the Moriarty tribunal completed last week.
Asked whether the stress of the tribunal might have contributed to a shortened life expectancy for his father, Mr Haughey replied that it was obvious his father had "been under a lot of strain for the last four years and it must take its toll".