THE eldest daughter of the late Mrs Brigid McCole told the tribunal of inquiry yesterday that her mother went "through hell" because of a hepatitis C infection received through anti D in 1977.
During what was at times emotional testimony, Ms Brid McCole (27) said her mother had enjoyed a happy, healthy life until her last 10 years when the little understood liver disease manifested itself. In the latter stages of the illness the family would hear her screams at night.
She never drank or smoked and enjoyed walking by the sea. "She was more like a sister than a mother because she was always there for us," Ms McCole said.
She was introduced by Mr Rory Brady SC, counsel for the tribunal, as being there "to impress upon the tribunal and the public at large the extent to which your mother suffered as a result of having this hepatitis C virus".
Mr Brady said it was Mrs Brigid McCole's dying wish that the truth of now she suffered and the circumstances surrounding it would be revealed.
In the last three or four years of her mother's life, she and the rest of the family would lie awake at night listening to Mrs McCole's screams and were at a loss to do anything.
Her mother "just went through hell" and her condition had been doubted by a visiting GP who asked a family member if she was imagining it. She "would never want to put you to any trouble" and want a GP to be called.
"She was so upset by the fact that for so many years she had been going to hospital and she had been seen by so many doctors and had so many blood tests ... she was beginning to doubt herself if it was all in her mind," she said.
Mrs McCole was advised by her consultant to press for a High Court hearing last June because of the advanced state of her illness. "She was denied that by the judge and he said if she was so sick that she could go to the (compensation) tribunal," Ms McCole said.
The Minister for Health had said that her court hearing, scheduled for last October, would be the inquiry. "That put an extra burden on her," she said.
"I feel very strongly that only because my mother died, this tribunal would not have come through. It is only a shame that someone had to die for this to happen.
Ms McCole added that the nearest GP to the family was 14 miles away. It would take her mother nine hours to travel to Dublin from the home, leaving at 6 a.m. She would travel by taxi to Letterkenny, and travel to Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, on the hospital bus, which would leave patients off at locations along the way. In the last 10 years she had slowly "got sicker and sicker", suffering blood clots in her legs and lungs.
"When they finally found out that she was a hepatitis C victim there was total bewilderment. It just got slowly and slowly worse," she said.
The family had no Dublin relations and until a phone was stalled because of Mrs McCole's illness, there was little contact with her for the long stays.
"Until she was diagnosed there was no counselling ... She was totally isolated. There was no one there for her to explain to her what hepatitis C was," she said.
Following the diagnosis and the provision of a regional counselling service, she suffered the stigma of attending a local psychiatric centre where the sessions were held.
When she made contact with Positive Action, which represents women infected with hepatitis C, she became very close to one member with whom she could share her worries.
Mrs McCole received special permission to attend the wedding of one of her children on August 16th, 1996. "She went back to hospital that Monday and she never came home," she said.
During her mother's last three weeks, at St Vincent's Hospital, Ms McCole stayed at her side while the family travelled to and from the home near Gweedore.