Hero Firemen Aid Crash Victim by Con Marley
Members of a fire brigade unit, who attended the scene of an accident, less than 500 metres from their station, courageously defied HSE and National Ambulance service protocol, when they ignored an order, from the 999 control centre, to return to their base and stayed with an unconscious female cyclist, who had been struck by a car. The firefighters remained with the stricken woman until an ambulance from a different county arrived almost half an hour later. The incredible incident happened in Oldcastle, when twenty five year old Isobel Farrelly was knocked off her bike while cycling close to her home on the Millbrook road in the town. Oldcastle fire station is on the same road and the firemen on duty became aware of the accident when they saw a crowd begin to gather. A senior fire brigade source confirmed, ‘Members went to the scene to offer assistance, and found the girl was unconscious, and while they were dealing with this an instruction came through from the 999 control centre that they should return to the station as an ambulance was on the
way from Mullingar in Westmeath. ‘The lads knew the distance between the two towns, which is 36km, and had a fair idea how long the ambulance would take so they decided to ignore the instruction and wait until the ambulance arrived, they didn’t have to use any of there medical training as fortunately enough a doctor had come on the scene and was attending to the victim. ‘However they felt that if it was thought the girl needed to get to hospital in a hurry then they would have taken her there as it was the best course of action. ‘The ambulance arrived within thirty minutes and the Paradmedics took control of the situation, and it is believed the girl was taken to hospital for observation. ‘Strictly speaking our members ignored protocol but they took the humane course of action, and nobody can understand why , especially as they have training in how best to deal with situations like this they were ordered away in the first place, they have to be commended for what they done.’ Isobel Farrelly admitted she doesn’t have much recollection of the crash, but paid tribute to
the brigades efforts. ‘I was out cold for twenty minutes or so, I have no idea what happened during that period apart from what I have been told, but fair play to the fire brigade lads they did the decent thing and stayed with me, I really appreciate that. ‘I was lucky I was wearing a helmet, that saved my life, and apart from a few bruises and a badly battered helmet I’m
recovering well, I took a hard fall and definitely the helmet saved me, I just remember waking up outside my house, that’s the first thing I can recall. ‘I find it hard to understand why people with some medical expertise were directed to stop helping me that doesn’t make much sense at all, but I have to say the ambulance personnel were superb when they eventually arrived.’