This day a year ago, Pádraig came back to Dublin, on an air ambulance, via Goose Bay and Reykjavik. With his head protected by a helmet tied to the stretcher with a silver duct tape, his bone flap on dried ice in a styrofoam container on his mother’s lap – so small was the plane that there was not other space left.

For the first time since his accident and our arrival at his bedside, in Dublin Pat was told to wait outside, to go home for the night, that she could not stay. A few hours later, I arrived, early in the morning, the same happened to me, I had to wait, was then allowed in for 10 minutes, and then I was told to leave. It was terrible. I could just not believe it. I became angry. Did they not understand? To me it felt more like a prison than a hospital. And, then, it turned out that Pádraig was the lucky one to have a room by himself, he was not put into the open plan ICU part. Open plan ICU. No room. Open plan!

Today, it’s hands on. No sitting around and waiting.

Having done our course in ‘How to change to a speech valve’ and having graduated successfully from that, we just started our second module: ‘How to lift Pádraig out of his bed and into the wheelchair’. Another few days and, with a bit of luck, we’ll successfully pass that test too.

Pádraig had kind-of-a-quiet-day, but with many hours on the speech valve and sitting out in the wheelchair. Compared with just a couple of weeks ago, he is handling this almost to perfection. His heartbeat is normal, so is his breathing and oxygen intake. I wonder, will he be ready soon to get rid of the tracheostomy?

Watch out for tomorrows edition of Seachtain! – Here is a sneak preview, including a translation, all thanks to the journalist! Thank you!

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A moving new poem has been written by a young Dublin woman in honour of her friend, Pádraig Schäler, who was knocked down in Cape Cod, USA, a year ago. As she reflected on the defining moment of that accident when Pádraig was left in a coma, she was inspired to write a poem.

“I read Pádraig’s Dad, Reinhard’s, blog every morning and no matter if it makes me smile or brings tears to my eyes, it is always a very important part of my day” she said
“I know that there are people all over the world just like me, our lives changed from that same moment, all of us together in this sadness. I didn’t share the poem at first but then I showed it to Reinhard, he asked me could he put it on the blog”

Ciara was in the same class as Pádraig in Trinity but she believes that she first got to know him properly when they were in the Cumann Gaelach together. She describes the former auditor of the Cumann as someone who was central to Irish language life in the college.

“You would miss him if he wasn’t at something, you would feel the lack of his presence. And if he was there…I remember someone saying to me once, “if Schäler is enjoying a night, you probably are yourself too”, and she was absolutely right!”

Pádraig is well known and much loved within the Irish language community, as a language activist, a writer, a broadcaster and as a friend. Hardly a week goes by without the sound of young visitors speaking in Irish to Pádraig, in the Schön Klinik, the hospital where he is in Hamburg.

Pádraig’s parents made the difficult decision to move him to Germany when they were told that he would have to wait at least nine months to get essential neurological rehabilitation treatment in Ireland. Ciara herself spent time visiting Pádraig in Hamburg and she said that it gives her great hope to see the doctors and nurses working hard to give Pádraig the treatment he needs.

“It was fantastic to see him. Although Reinhard does a great job describing his progress on the blog, there is nothing as good as being in the same room as Pádraig”

According to Reinhard Schäler, who writes everyday at hospi-tales.com, it is a slow process but Pádraig is recovering gradually. It is clear now that he can understand things and physically he is gaining strength. He can squeeze his parents’ and friends’ hands, move his feet slightly and communicate by moving his tongue to the left and right, a new method of communication to say “yes” and “no”.

There have been lots of events throughout the past year to raise money for Pádraig and the latest project his friends have started is “Amhrán do Phádraig” which is set to be launched next month.