Since Monday, Liveline has had a whole host of calls from people living in nursing homes, people looking for rehab and, yet again, those that are too young to be there.


Tommy Lee's partner, Amanda, fell down the stairs aged 41. The ambulance came to take her to the hospital after the accident but, due to unforeseen circumstances, the ambulance had to turn back. Amanda was left with bleeding on her brain for fourteen hours longer.


In July of last year, Amanda was moved to the nursing home section of the Royal Hospital in Donnybrook. Like Trish earlier in the week, she is too young to be there, and should be somewhere else; in rehab.


'She never got a proper shot at rehab, even though she's advancing. She's been in the nursing home since last July and the differences in her are unbelievable. Everyday she's showing something new'.


Tommy told Joe Duffy that 'there is an awful lot of the woman still there', when asked whether Amanda is still capable of communication. Saying that she has come on a lot, she now uses her hand to respond, with a thumbs up, a thumbs down… even the middle finger!


'If Amanda had proper intensive rehabilitation services, she'd come on even more'.


The message being reinforced here today on Liveline is that the services are there, but the time for these services to be processed is taking too long. Tommy wants to get Amanda home. He has the house, he's ready to kit it out but he must wait for the bed and the hoist to be supplied. Amanda is in the Royal Hospital under the Fair Deal scheme and, like Trish's plea on Monday, he asks why the money being spent by the State could not be used for a home care package instead, to bring her to an environment that would improve her.


'If you can't do it for the one you love, you can't do it for anyone'.


Following Tommy's call, another listener, Mary, was prompted to contact the show. Her daughter, Sarah, waited in Beaumont Hospital for two years and three months with an Acquired Brain Injury to get into the National Rehabilitation Hospital. To listen back to the full item, click here.