Girl (14) airlifted to hospital after jumping into river
A 14-YEAR- OLD girl was flown to University Hospital Waterford after she got into danger when she jumped into the River Slaney from Rafter Bridge last Wednesday.
The alarm was raised by Sean Cahill from Slaney Search and Rescue after he saw the girl get into extreme difficulty when she jumped into the river.
The girl did not resurface to the top because of the strong flow in the water from the tide falling, which ended up dragging her to the bottom.
PRO John Byrne of Slaney Search and Rescue received a call at 4.50p.m. from his colleague Sean to say he needed to contact the Garda Station because ‘ things were getting out of hand’.
‘It just so happened Sean was around at the time. There were too many people on the new bridge jumping in and he felt something bad was going to happen,’ said John.
After John phoned the station, he answered another call from Sean to say a girl had jumped in and struggled to get back out. John quickly rang the station back to say they needed emergency services.
Meanwhile, Sean had jumped in to try and save her while John and other crew members made their way down to the scene of the incident.
John said: ‘On our way down I got a call from emergency services asking did I know about the girl who jumped into the water. They told me they were on the way, as well as the Rescue 117 helicopter.’
Sean, along with some help from 14-year-old Kevin Nolan, finally reached the girl in the water where they brought her back to the banks.
The girl was unconscious and struggled to breathe when she was retrieved from the water. Luckily nurse Lukas Lorinty from Lawson House Nursing Home was on site where he provided CPR to her while emergency services were on the way.
Once she regained consciousness, she was put into the back of the ambulance where they rushed her to Enniscorthy Showgrounds and transferred her by air ambulance to University Hospital Waterford. She is believed to be in a stable condition, with no life-threatening injuries.