Galway man can finally come home – five years after attack left him with brain injuries
A 22-year-old Galway man is finally coming home — almost five years after he suffered horrific brain injuries in an unprovoked attack after attending the Races.
Shane Grogan, who is now 27, has been resident in a number of care facilities since the attack took place in Tuam after he celebrated a very rewarding and extremely enjoyable final day of the Galway Races in 2012.
And this week planning permission was granted to the Grogan family in Tuam for the construction of a new house in the town which will be specially adapted to accommodate Shane.
His parents Joe and Joan Grogan were granted planning permission to demolish an old dwelling and construct a new house at Ballygaddy Road in Tuam which will be built to suit the needs of Shane. “We will finally be able to bring him home”, Joe told The Connacht Tribune.
“He needs to be part of our family. It was our goal five years ago to bring him home and we were told that it would never happen but within the next year we hope that everything will be in place to ensure that this happens,” Joe added.
Since that terrible night when Shane was viciously attacked with a piece of concrete kerbing, he has remained in the care of several institutions and in currently residing in a nursing home in Tuam where he is visited daily by his parents.
There is still an active fundraising campaign to ensure that he receives the best medical care available – in the hope that he may, at some stage, make a fuller recovery.
The new family home will have an exercise room, a rest room and plenty of open space so that he can receive the best care possible.
As the Galway Races approach, it is a particularly trying time for the Grogan family – but they are delighted that they now have the opportunity to welcome him back to their new home which will be completed in around a year’s time.
See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.