A hero nurse has been praised after saving a young boy's life mere weeks after undergoing a kidney transplant.
Shankill-woman Lorna McSwiggan-Martin jumped into action after her next-door neighbour, Finian Gallagher, ran to her home with a desperate plea to save his choking son Jack’s life. Lorna, who had previously suffered kidney failure, had been recovering from a kidney transplant operation that had taken place just five weeks ago.
Quick thinking Lorna immediately went into "auto-pilot" despite not having worked as a nurse for a couple of years due to her kidney issues. She asked her husband, Richard, to call for an ambulance before attempting the Heimlich manoeuvre on Jack, who had choked on spaghetti, which proved unsuccessful.
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But Lorna didn't stop there. She quickly progressed to administering CPR on Jack who had gone into cardiac arrest. A defibrillator, which Finian frantically retrieved from a nearby shop, could not help save his son who had no pulse and was non-conducive to shock therapy.
On the Late Late Show last night, Lorna told Ryan Tubridy how she used all the strength she had while still recovering from her major transplant operation to continue with CPR for a total of 9 to 10 minutes by which time the paramedics arrived and took over by carrying him to the ambulance where he "miraculously came back to life" and sat up.
Finian’s wife Louise said the incident was "the most traumatic time of our lives" and expressed her gratitude to Lorna for saving her son's life. Louise said after Jack returned home from CHI Crumlin two days later, his first visitor was Lorna.
She said the duo "shared a big hug that will stay in my heart forever. [Jack] didn’t understand what that hug meant to our family." During her first night in the emergency department, Louise sent a message to Lorna asking “how could I ever thank her? The person who had saved Lorna’s life and had donated their organ to Lorna in effect had carried through and it had carried on to Jack.”
Ryan said: "That is a remarkable circle of life and generosity and kindness and loving and obviously with respect to the donors family. They should take some comfort to know that it was a remarkable donation all round."
While Finian and Louise are still in shock after the traumatic incident, they believe that were it not for Lorna’s intervention combined with some kind of miracle Jack would not be with them today.
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