2017 Irish Lyme Disease Conference - Nicci St George Smith
Insect bite leaves Irish woman seriously ill with Lyme disease
Irish Lyme disease sufferers tell how they wanted to kill themselves because of the pain
And their plight was made worse as doctors in Ireland often have little knowledge of the illness
Lyme disease sufferers have told how they wanted to kill themselves because of the pain of their little- understood condition.
And their plight was made worse as doctors in Ireland often have little knowledge of the illness – which is spread by an infected tick bite – and put patients on anti-depressants.
However, documentary Living With Lyme Disease, to be shown on RTE, shines a spotlight on the condition – and talks to sufferers who got so low they wanted to end it all.
Anthony Morris was a civil engineer and sportsman who became ill, but it took an incredible eight years before he was diagnosed with Lyme disease.
And that only came when he sent blood samples to a specialist German laboratory.
The father of two cries when he talks about how his life was destroyed by the disease.
He said: “You feel like committing suicide you’re so low and in such pain – it never stops.
“There’d be times I’d be on the motorway and there’d be an articulated lorry coming and I’d think if I just drive under him that will be the end of it.”
Mum-of-two Catherine Brosnan was diagnosed and was desperate to get help.
Crying, she said: “I started fundraising to go abroad for treatment but stopped as people were talking.
“They said, ‘Oh, she’s not sick, she’s gathering money.’ I got very depressed over it.
“Then you go to the doctor’s and they say it’s all in your head.”
Nicci St George Smith was working in the US when she was bitten by a tick and got the disease.
She was one of the 50% who get a bullseye rash and was put on antibiotics, the usual treatment when caught early.
Nicci said: “I thought I was cured but I wasn’t. In Ireland there is a complete lack of understanding of the seriousness of tick-borne infections.”
Wildlife cameraman James Pembroke, who worked on this documentary, was bitten by a tick in Kerry in 2013 and became desperately ill.
He was sent to a rheumatologist with suspected rheumatoid arthritis which he did not have.
James said: “I couldn’t walk, my joints stiffened up and I’d night sweats.”
He was finally diagnosed by Germany’s Dr Armin Schwarzbach who said much more education is needed in Ireland.
“Standard” tests miss between 62% and 83% of LD cases
detected by EliSpot.
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