Mayo man Stephen Lavelle, who was in a medical emergency, died after his family were forced to drive him to Mayo University Hopsital in Castlebar when no ambulance was available.

After being raised in the Dáil yesterday, the case of the late Mr Lavelle was highlighted by doctor Lisa Cunningham from Ballina on her well known Instagram account: "This is the reality on any given day in Ireland", Cunningham says in her video shared on Tuesday evening (January 20). She displayed a message sent to her:

"My father in law had a medical emergency Saturday night. There was no ambulance available to be dispatched to him."

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The person continued to explain, that they eventually got West Doc but only because someone had the number of the man who drives for them. They said :"It was a category 1 emergency and we needed to get him to hospital immediately. No ambulance no helicopter. We had to take him ourselves. It was the most traumatic drive of our lives."

Cunningham then asked people to put themselves in this person's shoes, emphasising: "You're over 70 minutes away with bad dark country roads to the nearest emergency department (in Castlebar).

"How abandoned would you feel? How isolated, how vulnerable, how frustrated, how worried, all of these emotions while you're in a car trying to get your way to Castlebar Hospital."

The final part of the person's message is displayed, stating: "We lost him 10 minutes from Castlebar and I had to give him CPR across the back seat of our car until we got to the hospital. He died yesterday."

The person concludes: "How is this our reality and the way things are in 2026. Something needs to change."

NO SURPRISE

Dr Lisa Cunningham is well-known for highlighting health care issues on social media.

"My first thing was that my heart just absolutely fell from my chest. There was so much heaviness in my heart when I read that message first from that person who follows me, mainly because I had already spoken about the Eircode Lottery that goes on around Ireland," said Cunningham described her feelings while speaking to The Mayo News.

She criticises a lack of health care availability in rural areas like in parts of Mayo. But Cunningham makes it clear, that this is in no way coming down on the amazing personnel that work frontline in the Ambulance Service: "They have had horrendous moral injury from not being able to even get to these patients. They know about these patients. They've highlighted their concerns multiple times, but bringing it back to that patient and their relatives of that horrendous journey that they've had to make with nobody coming to help them."

Cunningham explains that an incident like the one mentioned above didn't come as a bolt from the blue, as the issue of spare emergency service availability in the more remote parts of the country have been widely known. 

She explains that especially the farming community is affected by emergencies like the one outlined above. And she says the extent of the problem has been known for years.

Cunningham recalled a conversation she had when she was a trainee: "I remember having a discussion with one person talking about the accessibility to the pre-hospital care for the rural aspect. And I was actually told, that's the price that you get for cheaper mortgages and clean air. And I was so disappointed with that attitude."

What must feel even more disappointing is the fact that little seems to have changed since then. Rural communities are afraid similar things could happen to them. They feel extremely vulnerable. But as if that was not enough, Cunningham has observed there seems to be a certain lack of empathy towards people in the West of Ireland.

Some call it being part of the so called "Eircode lottery", where availability of services increasingly depends on where you live.

Cunningham has had huge reactions to her social media video: "And since I posted that video yesterday, I've had a huge amount of people from maybe the rural aspect of Mayo, Donegal and Sligo who have sent me loads of examples of this as well. And of course, some places around the country as well, the cities, like the ambulance delays, etc. But the rural aspect of that, it's absolutely heart-wrenching."

Apart from Sinn Féin leader McDonald, Mayo TD Paul Lawless (Aontú) has also raised concerns: “It is often said that the measure of a society is how it treats its most vulnerable. If that is true, then this case should trouble the conscience of Government. We cannot allow the people of Mayo—or any part of this country—to live with the quiet dread that an ambulance may not come when it is called.”

He concluded with a firm call to action: “The Government must ensure that this never happens again. Not in Mayo, not anywhere. The Lavelle family deserve answers, and the public deserve assurance. Anything less would be a dereliction of duty.”

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