February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Andrew Bushe
DUBLIN — Former Taoiseach Charles Haughey is recovering from a life-threatening heart condition in Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital after he was rushed there by ambulance in the early hours of Monday morning.
Following a collapse at his Kinsealy home, Haughey, who is 75, was treated in the accident and emergency department before being admitted to the intensive care unit.
Described as "critical," he was sedated and put on a ventilator. A hospital spokesman said he had not had a heart attack but was suffering from a "serious life-threatening cardiac condition."
After a day-long vigil by his family, the former taoiseach regained consciousness on Monday evening and joked with his family.
He was moved from the intensive care unit to the cardiac unit on Tuesday.
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The hospital said he may be well enough to return home in a fortnight. "Our medical staff are quite confident Mr. Haughey will make a recovery," the hospital said.
One of Haughey’s sons, the TD Sean Haughey, said his father’s illness had been unexpected as he had been good form over the weekend. "Nobody ever knows what is around the corner," he said. "He just took a bad turn."
Sean Haughey said the strain of the last four years had taken its toll. The former taoiseach has been in poor health since being diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1995. Six months ago, a medical report handed to the Moriarity Tribunal said he was terminally ill with prostate cancer.
The tribunal, which is investigating £8.5 million it is claimed he received in payments during his career, agreed to take evidence from Haughey in private rather than in public session.
He had finished his evidence to Moriarty last week and had spent the St. Patrick’s weekend with family and friends
Haughey, who led the country on three occasions between 1979 and 1992, has been dogged by scandal since he resigned from public life.
In 1997, the McCracken judicial tribunal established he received £1.3 million in gifts from former supermarket boss Ben Dunne.
He was forced to sell land surrounding his north Dublin mansion to pay a million pound tax bill on those payments.
Criminal charges alleging he hindered and obstructed that tribunal are in abeyance as a judge ruled he could not get a fair trial at the moment.
Later in 1997, the Oireachtas set up the Moriarty tribunal to investigate other payments he received during his long political career from a series of business figures and companies.