'It strips you of your dignity' - Kerry teacher seeks funds for Lyme disease treatment
Karin Been Brendan’s “indefinitely” Has Teaching Via Up Give College In Killarney, Photo Kerry, At O’shea Co Job To Her Gofundme St Forced
A secondary school teacher whose Lyme disease can’t be treated here because of a late diagnosis has set up a GoFundMe page for vital treatment in Germany.
Karin O’Shea’s life has been destroyed as infection has spread to her joints, heart, nervous system and brain.
The 26-year-old, who has been forced to give up her teaching job at St Brendan’s College in Killarney, Co. Kerry, “indefinitely”, is now housebound.
She says treatment for the disease - which is caused by bacteria spread through the bite of an infected tick to a person - in the St George’s Clinic, Germany, for four weeks is the only option open to her now.
The cost of the intensive treatment there is at least €35,000 and that doesn’t include travel, post-treatment care, and further appointments. In just 14 hours, as of 6pm today, she raised just over €34,000 of her €45,000 goal thanks to donations from more than 800 people.
“The disease has had a devastating effect on me,” Karin, from Kilgarvan, says on her GoFundMe page.
“This is a diagnosis that has deeply affected every single aspect of my life.” She says the disease went undiagnosed for 12 years.
Although she was instead given a diagnosis of Fibromyalgia, she was able to manage the symptoms and “life was normal”. But she suffered a severe deterioration in health in October 2020.
Despite seeing her GP, “countless” consultants, undergoing X-rays, scans and MRIs nobody was able to tell her what was wrong. However, when she sent a sample of her own blood to a clinic in Germany to have it tested for Lyme disease, the result came back positive.
She was then put on a course of five antibiotics a day over a period of months but as well as having to endure “severe side effects”, the course failed due to her late diagnosis.
She said: “It has done immense damage to my immune and nervous system.
“Being aware of your own body and brain depleting daily is utterly terrifying.
“It strips you of your dignity.
“The never-ending pain is gruelling beyond comprehension.
“Every day tasks that would typically be easy to accomplish have suddenly become near impossible.
“I am now mostly housebound. I have nowhere left to turn.”