Really hooked on sea angling

THANKFULLY, I have rarely had to avail of the excellent and professional services of the Emergency Department (ED) at Mayo University Hospital, Castlebar, until recently, that is, writes Tom Gillespie.

It was really a deja vu moment as it brought me back in time by 60 years to when I was last treated in the then County Hospital, and for the same ‘injury’ - a fish hook impaled in my body.

Back then a gang of us were going fishing to Lough Lannagh. We had our fishing rods all assembled with line and hooks attached and a jar of worms in my pocket.

In those days, the small steam from Lough Rusheen flowed through Marian Row, where we lived, along Newport Road. The stretch on the Newport Road has since been enclosed.

We were walking along by the bank when I slipped and the hook, with a barb, got stuck behind my right knee.

My farther was about to go fishing with P.W. Leamy when I arrived home and I was brought to the County Hospital where a surgeon got a pliers, cut off the barb, which he had pushed through my skin, and removed the hook.

My biggest regret was the loss of the hook.

But fast forward to last week.

A group of us went sea angling off Belmullet. We were having a great fish day with huge catches of pollock and mackerel, and the odd Balin wrasse, red gurnard and flounder.

We were fishing close to Eagle Island and the pollock were being hauled in, four at a time.

No sooner had I lowered the feathers than I was stuck in another few.

This time I knew I had hooked a sizeable fish and it took some time to get it to the surface. What emerged from the deep was an eight-pound pollock and a smaller one of the end hook.

I managed to lift them into the boat and I went to unhook the larger fish when the weight attached to the end of the feathers fell off the side of the boat, impaling one of the hooks in the fourth finger on my right hand.

I was well and truly hooked as the barb had sunk well into my finger.

My colleagues agreed we had enough fish on board and we headed for shore.

I drove to Dr. Keith Swanick at Belmullet Health Centre who, after examining the injury, directed me to Mayo University Hospital for a X-ray before the hook could be removed.

On arrival at hospital I was seen by the triage nurse within 15 minutes. I waited in a packed ED for another two hours before being called for the X-ray after which I was taken to a private room where my finger was numbed and the doctor, who admitted it was the first time in his four years at the hospital that he saw a fish hook injury requiring an X-ray.

Then came the painful part as another doctor held my injured hand firmly on a table as the hook was extracted.

I have been sea angling for up on 55 years and when I ran the West of Ireland National Union of Journalists annual deep seas fishing competition out of Westport, Newport and Inishturk island we always removed the barbs from the hooks which made it easier to remove the fish from the hooks, something I must revert to in the future.

There has been much criticism of waiting times at Emergency Departments but my experience at Mayo University Hospital was totally positive, with a busy staff dealing with patients in a most caring, courteous and professional manner.

I hope it will be a long again before I have to attend ED.