Darkly comic play, ‘Patient: Soldier’ pays hommage to health services. Barra Fitzgibbon discusses with Pat Kenny.
Irishman Barra Fitzgibbon, the first Covid patient in the UK to come out of his coma in ICU told the Pat Kenny Show that his new play Patient: Soldier pays hommage to health services.
Barra Fitzgibbon was the first Covid patient in the UK to come out of his coma in ICU and he wrote a compelling blog about his experience.
The blog became a play called Patient Soldier, soon to tour in Ireland.
Mr Fitzgibbon was a healthy 48-year old man who enjoyed regular exercise when he was fell seriously ill to the point where he needed to be placed in a medically-induced coma for six days.
“ I knew that I was struggling with the normality of breathing and that kind of stuff, but it felt no more than a very, very severe bout of flu.
“When I went in, within a day or two, I was informed by the medical team there that I was going into a coma. In the briefing, they made it very clear that there was a 60 percent chance of making it.
“I was just desperate to get some sleep. When they said you were going into a coma, it was obviously frightening. At the same time, I saw it as an opportunity just to get some rest. I was so exhausted.”
Mr Fitzgibbon said he still had longstanding relationships with people from the Lewisham ICU.
“I see it as a second home in many ways”, he told The Pat Kenny Show.
“I like to think that the play offers the opportunity for us to look back at this time: a look at the positive things and with respect to all the tragedy and horror.
Medical worker wearing personal protective equipment doing a COVID virus swab on female patient. Picture by: Alamy“Positive things happened there too: there was lots of human touch, human communication, holding hands, conversations, tough conversations, but lots of empathy and lots of comedy.
“There's lots of comedy in there, too. Humanity doesn't stop when you're at the cold face of this, of anything, really. You know, humanity continues.”
Barra Fitzgibbon said his new play, Patient: Soldier pays hommage to health services in UK and globally.
He said healthcare workers were “superheroes”.
“I've no doubt in my mind that the NHS would have collapsed if it wasn't for those people going above and beyond”, he told Newstalk.
He credited playwright Catherine White, who also stars in the play as the one making the play more palatable for the stage production.
He explained the hallucinations he was having during treatment form part of the play.
“It’s quite surreal when you're watching”, he said.
Patient: Soldier is opening in Tallaght on March 27th and thereafter across Ireland.
Main Image: Patient: Soldier poster.
