{"id":7284,"date":"2026-03-31T20:59:36","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T20:59:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/?p=7284"},"modified":"2026-04-03T13:13:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T13:13:59","slug":"paddy-murphy-is-very-familiar-with-the-specialists-dedicated-to-helping-high-risk-patients-whove-been-told-there-is-no-hope-what-no-one-was-prepared-for-was-what-happened-on-the-operating-table-wh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/?p=7284","title":{"rendered":"Paddy Murphy is very familiar with the specialists dedicated to helping HIGH-RISK patients who’ve been told there is NO HOPE… what no one was prepared for was what happened on the OPERATING TABLE when Paddy was undergoing relatively routine surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Paddy Murphy had been living an active life until January 2020 when he put on his coat as usual to walk down to his local pub for a pint, as was his routine.<\/p>\n

\u2018I got about a couple of 100 yards down the road and I couldn\u2019t breathe which was very unusual for me,\u2019 says Paddy. \u2018I had to sit down on a wall for a few minutes and I felt a bit better but when I started walking the same thing happened.\u2019<\/p>\n

Paddy rang his GP who had grave concerns and sent him to the Mater Hospital.<\/p>\n

He found out the next day that the issue was with his heart and he needed a bypass – which came as quite a shock. \u2018I have to tell you now that didn\u2019t go down too well with me at all,\u2019 says Paddy. \u2018I\u2019ve never been sick in my life. The next thing I knew I was being lined up and I was brought into the Mater and I had a quadruple bypass the next day.\u2019<\/p>\n

Paddy had his operation and his life improved until he had a resurgence of a skin cancer<\/a> that had been on his head.<\/p>\n

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\"Paddy<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Paddy Murphy has been given a new lease of life by the Mater Private cardiac specialists<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018I had a small little pimple on the side of my head and my consultant Dylan Murray didn\u2019t like the look of it. He investigated and found out it was a tumour.\u2019<\/p>\n

A plan was made to operate and remove the tumour but\u00a0 Paddy had a heart attack on the operating table.<\/p>\n

What had happened was that Paddy\u2019s bypass was no longer working the way it should have been but he was lucky to have been in the Mater Private where two consultants are leading a specialist team that is offering hope to heart patients when others believe they have done all they can.<\/p>\n

Dr Colm Hanratty is a Consultant Cardiologist and Director of Cath Lab at the Mater Private Hospital, Dublin and Dr JJ Coughlan is a consultant Cardiologist and they lead the Complex Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) team at the Mater Private, helping patients with challenging heart issues who may have been previously told there is no hope.<\/p>\n

\u2018There are lots of people out there who have got complex coronary disease which they\u2019ve been told can\u2019t be treated or they have not been offered a treatment,\u2019 says Dr Hanratty.<\/p>\n

\u2018One of the reasons that maybe these patients aren\u2019t offered treatment is that because of the pattern of disease that they have, or maybe because of their age, they\u2019re considered high risk or people might think that it\u2019s too risky to offer them treatment.<\/p>\n

\u2018Or the disease is very complex and other doctors might not be able to offer them treatment, it might not be within their skill set to be able to perform these kinds of procedures. And we see that particularly when people have had arteries that have been blocked for a very long time, and which is regarded as more challenging to treat.<\/p>\n

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\"Consultant<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Consultant cardiologists Dr JJ Coughlan and Dr Colm Hanratty<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

And so because of that, and because these patients are maybe limited by symptoms, but they\u2019re out in the community, they\u2019re just left to kind of trundle along and perhaps their quality of life isn\u2019t that good and they aren\u2019t able to do much.<\/p>\n

\u2018But at the same time they\u2019re not in the hospital and their doctor might think they are out in the community and doing OK but their quality of life might not be great.<\/p>\n

\u2018A common story that we would encounter is people who\u2019ve really been living for a long time with very significant symptoms that are really limiting what they can do in their daily lives.\u2019<\/p>\n

The Complex PCI team take their patients and first of all look at what\u2019s going on with the arteries that supply their heart, where the problems are.<\/p>\n

\u2018We try to see if there is a way that we can offer them some sort of a solution that can improve the blood supply to the heart,\u2019 says Dr Hanratty.<\/p>\n

\u2018And generally by doing that, we find that a lot of the patients we treat feel a lot better, they\u2019re able to do a lot more, and they\u2019re able to enjoy life a lot more. A lot of what we do is actually about improving people\u2019s quality of life. And so for us, the massive thing is that if a patient is having significant symptoms and they have a problem with the arteries of their heart, we try to improve that.\u2019<\/p>\n

For Paddy, the fact that he was referred to the Complex PCI team was a life-saver.<\/p>\n

\u2018Unbeknownst to the doctors who were doing the operation, he actually had been having significant chest pain for months,\u2019 says Dr Coughlan. \u2018He was barely able to leave the house and he hadn\u2019t told anybody. And he had previously had bypass surgery many years ago, but some of the grafts that had been done as part of the operation had begun to fail. So primarily a lot of his heart\u2019s blood supply was reliant on one of his grafts.\u2019<\/p>\n

Paddy was in a difficult situation.<\/p>\n

\u2018His own arteries had completely blocked off and all he had was this graft and it was clearly a problem. So that\u2019s an example of a situation where he\u2019s a patient who doesn\u2019t really have many options. There wasn\u2019t a surgical option for him to be treated. Medicines clearly weren\u2019t weren\u2019t suitable for him, and he was in a very challenging situation. And the only option was to open his native blood vessels which had been blocked for a long time.\u2019<\/p>\n

Paddy got the procedure done by Dr Hanratty – percutaneous coronary intervention is a minimally invasive procedure that opens the arteries.<\/p>\n

A catheter with a small balloon is inserted through a small incision in the wrist or groin and guided to the blockage, where the balloon inflates to widen the artery, placing a stent there to keep it open.<\/p>\n

\u2018When I saw him back in clinic, his life was really completely transformed,\u2019 says Dr Coughlan.<\/p>\n

\u2018Before he had been barely able to leave the house. He wasn\u2019t able to play golf and he\u2019s back now playing 18 holes of golf.<\/p>\n

\u2018He can walk as far as he wants without issue, and he\u2019s back going out singing. And I think it\u2019s an example of somebody who was really just getting on with symptoms and very limited for a long period of time, who underwent what was certainly a high risk and complex procedure, but one that was performed by an individual with expertise in treating these kinds of cases. And it\u2019s really made a massive difference to his life. So he\u2019s gone from really being very limited to effectively having no limitations at all.\u2019<\/p>\n

Dr Hanratty says if you have been diagnosed with a heart issue and you feel that the treatment you have been receiving hasn\u2019t been working for you, then it is worth asking for a second opinion, particularly if your quality of life has been badly affected.<\/p>\n

\u2018The fact that you can\u2019t play golf isn\u2019t necessarily a big thing in the minds of a doctor or GP,\u2019 says Dr Hanratty. \u2018The fact that you\u2019re not in hospital, the fact that you\u2019re still out and about, doctors might feel that patient\u2019s quality of life is fine.\u2019<\/p>\n

Age is also a factor in patients being told there is nothing more that can be done but at the very least Dr Hanratty says his team can offer a second opinion.<\/p>\n

\u2018We\u2019ve set aside what we would describe as a complex list. Where we have got a team who are specialised in dealing with these patients.\u2019<\/p>\n

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\"Dr<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Dr Colm Hanratty and Dr JJ Coughlan with the Complex PCI team at the Mater Private Hospital<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

As cardiac consultants their daily work sees them dealing with cardiac patients of all kinds.<\/p>\n

\u2018But the service also acts as a referral service so other cardiologists can refer patients to us if they\u2019ve had challenges. Sometimes patients who\u2019ve had complications or difficulties in other places and are still having issues, they may come for a second opinion. But the main idea is that by having a dedicated complex list with two consultant operators working alongside a specialist team, we\u2019re able to do more of these cases and also do them in a more safe manner.<\/p>\n

\u2018We have a lot of experience in managing the types of situations that commonly come up. And this means that we can offer these high risk procedures with a very low complication rate. One of the reasons that people are maybe less inclined to offer some of these patients treatment is that they\u2019re concerned about the potential for complications, the potential for risk. But we would say that complex procedures can be performed and high risk procedures can be with low risk to the patient if they\u2019re done by individuals who specialise in that area and a team that\u2019s focused on that area all the time,\u2019 Dr Hanratty continued.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s a satisfying job to see patients like Patrick (Paddy) whose life greatly improved after the treatment.<\/p>\n

\u2018Patrick happened to be in the hospital and came to us because he was in our hospital,\u2019 says Dr Hanratty.<\/p>\n

\u2018A lot of the other patients we deal with have come as second opinion, either through their GP or direct referrals. That is a very common pathway. The patients are definitely out there and we\u2019re now in a position to treat a larger number of these patients.<\/p>\n

\u2018Both JJ and I are salaried by the hospital, so we\u2019re not fee for service doctors, so we don\u2019t gain any additional revenue by doing these procedures. It\u2019s taken us five years to get to this point, but I think what the hospital has seen is that the benefit to patients is clear.\u2019<\/p>\n

And for Paddy it has been life-changing. Despite the fact that he was also diagnosed with prostate cancer which was subsequently treated and is waiting for another skin cancer operation, the PCI procedure has given him a new lease of life.<\/p>\n

He can walk to the pub, he\u2019s golfing and he is back travelling too. The Dubliner, 80, is full of thanks for the treatment he received from Dr Hanratty and Dr Coughlan and he has been signed off their list now.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m back playing golf,\u2019 Paddy says. \u2018I said to them before the operation, \u201cWill I be able to play golf after the operation?\u201d. And he said, of course you will.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I am back doing all those things now. It has been fantastic as I have my confidence back.\u2019<\/p>\n

For more information about the Complex PCI team see materprivate.ie or ask your GP.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Paddy Murphy had been living an active life until January 2020 when he put on his coat as usual to walk down to his local pub for a pint, as was his routine. \u2018I got about a couple of 100 yards down the road and I couldn\u2019t breathe which was very unusual for me,\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7284"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7399,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7284\/revisions\/7399"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}