Minister in spinal brace after crash
He was out cycling with his wife on January 2, outside Roscommon Town, when he was struck by a car.
“I’ve had both soft tissue injury and spinal injury so no more than anyone else with a back injury they know that it takes time,” he said yesterday.
“Travelling, sitting, standing — those kinds of things are difficult at the moment, hopefully, I will make a full recovery, the medical experts say I will over time.”
The minister said “a lot of things” went through his mind as he fell from his bike.
“When you’re hurtling through the air, yes, look a lot of things go through your head in those split seconds, but thankfully the injuries aren’t long-term, hopefully.”
His father Liam Naughten died as a result of a road collision in 1996 in the area of Ballinasloe, Co Galway. The father of eight was the then cathaoirleach of the Seanad.
“From my own perspective and from my own family perspective from having been through the experience of a road traffic death 20 years ago, it brought it all home to me,” he said.
He was speaking to Seán O’Rourke on RTÉ Radio One yesterday and was asked about his firsthand account of the trolley crisis.
“I was on the flat of my back in a neck brace and head brace and spinal board I saw very little [at Portiuncula hospital],” he said.
“There was no doubt about it, in Portiuncula the staff were under huge pressure there. I understand from talking to some of my own constituents since, that people that were there on that day, some had to wait for sometimes up to 10 hours to actually get treatment and I think we need to look at the emergency departments.”
