MY HEART STOPPED 3 TIMES ON PITCH
Derek’s praise for team-mates and rival who saved him
A GAA player whose heart stopped three times during a match has told how his life was saved by a rival player — and teammates who ripped a defibrillator from a nearby supermarket wall.
Derek O’connor, 33, was playing for his Dublin club Croí Ró Naofa in a football championship match against St Joseph’s OCB last September when the horror incident happened.
He scored a goal in the contest at Fairview Park in Clontarf – and then, moments later, he was close to dying on the field after collapsing.
St Joseph’s player Paul Moore, who is a trained fireman, feared Derek was going into cardiac arrest and immediately began life-saving chest compressions.
There was no defibrillator pitchside, so Derek’s teammates ran to the local shops to get one and found one on a wall in a nearby supermarket.
Derek, from Clondalkin in Dublin, said: “That morning, I woke up as normal.
“I was feeling a bit tired, only because I had a pregnant girlfriend and she was up with pain most of the night.”
He attended a nephew’s birthday and his brother told him: “You don’t look okay.”
But Derek said: “I just put it down to being tired. As I was opening an energy drink, I said to him, ‘I’ll collapse on the field after this’.
“I’ve been told conditions were grand [at Fairview Park]. A nice sunny day. Unfortunately, I don’t remember any of it still to this day.
“I had just scored a nice goal which is rare for me.
“A couple of seconds later I was doubled up on the ground.
“Paul told me he knew I was going into cardiac arrest, so he started doing chest compressions straight away.
“Paul told the players to look for a defibrillator. Jack [a Croí Ró Naofa teammate] ripped one off a wall in Tesco.
“One of the lads got it off Jack and ran to Paul who did his thing until the ambulance got there.” Paul was later honoured at a Croí Ró Naofa’s awards ceremony for his heroic actions.
When Derek arrived at the Mater Hospital, doctors found that his heart had stopped three separate times duting the life-threatening ordeal.
During five days in the hospital’s ICU, Derek had a stent inserted in an artery to keep it from closing again.
He is now recovering at home with his partner and their baby and hopes to return to football action soon.
Derek told Dublin GAA: “I’m after making a full recovery, all thanks to the firefighters of Fairview fire station and especially Paul.
“My teammates from Croí Ró Naofa and the club itself have been a great help throughout the whole ordeal.
“I was on the sideline for the rest of the year but I’m planning on starting again at the start of this season.”