Drumlish councillor Paraic Brady grateful to be alive following near fatal heart attack
Scare: First Responders saved me
Longford County Councillor Paraic Brady has spoken of how he is lucky to be alive after suffering a near fatal heart attack at the weekend.
The Fine Gael local politician fell ill while tending to a bee hive for a friend in north Longford last Saturday.
Cllr Brady, who was on his own at the time, managed to raise the alarm before passing out seconds later.
It’s believed the long serving local representative was in and out of consciousness for almost 15 minutes while first responders from Dromard battled to save his life.
“I am lucky to be here, very lucky,” said Cllr Brady.
“All I can remember is being overcome with sweat and not being able to breathe.”
Cllr Brady said such was the severity of his cardiac arrest, he didn’t even have the strength to physically dial 999 to try and alert emergency services.
“It happened at around 12:30pm because I know when I pressed to call the last dialled number it was 11:59am,” he said, shortly before he rang is friend.
“I just pressed the button and said I was in trouble and I passed out soon after.
“I was actually gone and when they found me I wasn’t breathing and was blue.”
Cllr Brady was rushed to Cavan General Hospital where he currently remains and ahead of a series of tests which are expected to be carried out on the 48-year-old this week.
“I am grateful to be given a second chance,” he said.
“I am especially thankful to first responders Jimmy Kiernan who was first on the scene, Susan Duffy, Rosie Kiernan and Yvonne Lesley. Only for them I wouldn’t be here today.”
Similar tokens of appreciation were directed towards ambulance personnel, the staff of Cavan General Hospital and all those who have sent get well messages following the events of last Saturday.
On a more sincere note, the former HSE Dublin Mid Leinster Health Forum chairperson, said his own brush with mortality had raised question marks over the ambulance response times.
Despite heaping praise on the attentiveness of paramedics who rushed to the scene, Cllr Brady revealed the ambulance which transported him from north Longford to Cavan had, in fact, travelled from Monaghan.
“While I am grateful, it took 50 minutes for the ambulance to arrive,” he said.
“It is something I will be addressing not just because it happened to me personally, but I don’t want to see it happening to anybody else.”