Patients at the Mater are 101% behind nurses

Dressed in pyjamas, wheelchair-bound Mr William Hamm (20) watched the first day of the nurses' strike unfold from the steps of…

Dressed in pyjamas, wheelchair-bound Mr William Hamm (20) watched the first day of the nurses' strike unfold from the steps of the Mater Hospital in Dublin.

Two weeks ago he was beaten up; an incident which left him with no feeling in his back or left leg. He is not used to hospitals, he says, and because his parents both work in his home county of Laois, they can only come to visit him once a week.

He says he is a bit scared about what will happen to him because of the strike. He is an apprentice carpenter and "the longer the strike goes on the longer it will take me to get better".

"The nurses used to help me get in and out of this thing," he says, pointing at the chair. "Now with the strike I have to do it myself and I'm just lucky that the physiotherapist had already shown me how to do it."

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He says he is "101 per cent" supportive of the nurses. "I think it is wrong that the Government won't give the nurses what they want. If I had the money I would give it to them myself, if I could get out of this chair I would go down there and join them . . . The job they have to do is unbelievable."

While in hospital he has made friends with Mr Tommy Fitzgerald from the North Strand in Dublin. Tommy has been in the hospital for five months recovering from an infection after a broken hip.

"Only for them I would be dead today. It's scandalous what is happening," he says. There are now only two nurses looking after six different wards. "And they are doing it for no money whatsoever. They are doing it for nothing. They should be getting medals."