He is getting a good kick in the backside when he comes home
Relief of family of missing man found in intensive care in Portuguese hospital...
A MISSING Corkman who was found in a Portuguese hospital will be getting a ‘good kick up the a***’ when he returns home, his relieved family have said.
Denis Ring, who is known as Denny to friends, was discovered in intensive care in a Lisbon hospital after his family issued a plea online for help in finding him.
He had been found unconscious with a fractured skull after a night out in an Irish pub on Sunday.
He remains under sedation but was able to squeeze his father’s hand after recognising his voice.
It is not yet clear whether he fell or was robbed after leaving the bar in the heart of the Portuguese capital. His sister Eileen said the family located him thanks to the help of a complete stranger, named Marta Gonzaga, who recognised him from the family’s appeals on social media.
‘Denis has been found thanks to the power of social media,’ she wrote on X. ‘He is in intensive care and I personally am waiting to give him a good kick up the a*** once he’s out of it.
‘My family are so incredibly grateful for all the help.’
Ms Gonzaga saw the appeal and visited the hospital closest to where the Corkman was last seen and asked about any young foreign man who may have been brought in.
Ms Ring told the Irish Daily Mail: ‘The unknown was horrific.
‘I think it’s every family’s worst nightmare really and as each hour passes your mind will go to the worst place.
‘We are incredibly grateful that he’s alive and is in the right place. There’s a lot unknown, given he has head injuries, but he has been responding well especially when hearing my brother and dad’s voices who are with him along with two friends.’
She added: ‘We are blown away by people’s kindness and everyone who shared the posts online because that ensured we were able to locate him an awful lot quicker than without that.’
Ms Ring said a Portuguese woman who’d never even met Denis or his family found him.
She went to the hospital and thought she saw someone there who looked like the Corkman, and contacted the family.
‘She said she’d been in a similar situation before and was desperate to help. She asked about his tattoos,’ Ms Ring previously told CorkBeo.
‘He has a very noticeable Harry Potter dark mark tattoo on his arm. Soon after, his best friend went over to the hospital and was able to identify him. They were born only five days apart and have been best friends for life.’
She added: ‘It just goes to show
‘We’re blown away by the kindness’ ‘The support was overwhelming’
the power of social media. Thank you to everyone who messaged us and shared our posts online. You mightn’t think it meant much, but it meant the world to us.’
Ms Ring described the mystery woman who helped find her brother as ‘an absolute angel’.
She said their family are still not sure how badly injured he is but are hopeful he will be able to return to Cork soon.
Denis’s brother Mick also thanked those who helped. He said: ‘Thank you to each and every person who reached out, shared, retweeted and helped in any way in our search for our brother.
‘We have located him in hospital and pray he makes a full recovery. The support we have been shown by everyone is overwhelming and heartening. Thank you all.’
Ms Gonzaga, who works for conference organisation TEDx, told CorkBeo that she saw the online appeal during a break at work and immediately began to try to locate the missing man. She said: ‘I just felt like I could help. I thought, what happens to person in a bar at 1am? So I rang the nearest hospital. I asked if they had a man named Denis, and they said no. So I asked, what about any unidentified patients?’
Ms Gonzaga gave medical staff a detailed description of Denis and soon received confirmation that he was in ICU.
‘I messaged Denis’s sister on Facebook – and it was all confirmed,’ she added.