CATHAL MOORE REMEMBERS how his life flashed before his eyes as he waited for surgery on a life-threatening brain haemorrhage.
An All-Ireland finalist with Galway in 2001, Moore was rushed to hospital in June 2010 where doctors discovered that a severe headache was being caused by a bleed on his brain.
In an interview to be broadcast on TG4′s Ar Fud na Tíre tonight (7.30pm), Moore recalls the fear he felt as he waited for the craniotomy which saved his life.
That is when your life flashes before your eyes. You think about your life, your family and say a prayer or two.
The operation was a success and Moore was given the all-clear by doctors. He went back to work as a teacher and as an analyst on TG4′s GAA Beo programme and was even strong enough to return to the game he loved, coming on for Turloughmore in the final minutes of the 2012 county semi-final where they were beaten by Loughrea.
“To be honest, I couldn’t walk,” Moore remembers of his months in rehab. “I had to start from the beginning again.
“I received physio and OT, all those types of therapy. I had to start from the beginning, how to read and write again. Everything was jumbled up in my head.
“I worked with the hospital’s physio therapists. My first practical task was to make a cup of tea in a kitchen. I failed that exam! I was furious with the OT — but I failed because I didn’t fill the kettle with water.”
Moore challenges John Carroll of Tipperary in the 2001 All-Ireland Hurling final (INPHO/Lorraine O’Sullivan)
The illness and his battle back to fitness has given Moore a new outlook on life.
“Sometimes at school when I’m worried or under stress I put my hand up to my head and feel my scar. I leave my hand there for a little while. I think about life and that it could be a lot worse. That is my outlook on life.
“You have to enjoy life. Nothing lasts forever. I didn’t understand what that saying meant until I became ill. But now I understand.”
