Hero lifeguard rewarded after saving man

A HERO lifeguard has been honoured after dramatically saving a man’s life in Dublin last week.

Conor Wright (25), who works in the Swan Leisure in Rathmines, managed to resuscitate a man believed to be in his 60s, who got into difficulty while in the pool.

Dublin Fire Brigade (DFB) were alerted to the incident at around 10am last Thursday.

As DFB were on their way to the scene, Mr Wright had managed to drag the man out of the water and onto the side of the pool.

It is understood the man had gone into cardiac arrest at this stage after he had been at risk of drowning.

However, Mr Wright had resuscitated him fully by the time the DFB had arrived on scene.

Station Officer Justin Burns said Mr Wright’s heroics means that the man will be able to make a full recovery and not be affected by the incident.

Mr Burns said the man was sitting up in bed at St James’s Hospital a mere few hours later that day.

“He absolutely saved they guy’s life,” Mr Burns said. “We’re fully chuffed with him.”

Because of his actions, Mr Wright was awarded with a double-sided coin called a ‘lifesaver token’ by the DFB.

Engraved on the coin are the words “When help was needed you were there”.

Mr Wright said he thought the man had died when he came out of water.

“I was on the pool deck just making sure everything was neatly put away and I spotted your man in the water,” he said.

“I managed to get his head above the water and he had lost a lot of colour in his face.

“We got extremely lucky that he came back (to life),” Mr Wright added.