Hero who rescued toddler is identified
DEAN MCDONALD JUMPED ON TO TRACKS TO SAVE GIRL (2) WHO FELL
A YOUNG dad from Greystones has been identified as the hero who jumped on to train tracks to rescue two-year-old Sarah Murphy, who had fallen at Shankill station.
Dean McDonald (24), who is the dad of a six-month-old girl, was going to Shankill on the morning of Thursday, February 20, to visit a friend who had just had a baby.
‘I saw the girl with her mother, who also had a buggy,’ said Dean. The mother and children were getting on the train towards Dublin. ‘She (Sarah) missed the step, fell and landed down under the train,’ said Dean.
Sarah’s mum Kirsten, who also had a 10-month-old baby with her, told the Bray People last week how she saw Dean bolting towards them and jumping onto the track below without a moment’s hesitation. He picked Sarah up and handed her to another man on the platform.
‘The only thing I could do was go and get her,’ he said. ‘I would have preferred something happen to me rather than the little girl. I hope someone would do that if it was my daughter.’
He said that it’s instinctive for anyone to do what they can to protect a child. ‘I’m glad she wasn’t seriously hurt,’ said Dean.
The whole incident occurred in a matter of moments and it wasn’t until he walked away that Dean realised the seriousness of what had happened.
‘It all happened out of nowhere,’ said Dean. ‘I didn’t expect it to be in the paper or anything.’ Not only did he lift up the little girl, but he went back for her hat as she was upset at having left it on the track.
‘I remember seeing her before the fall, holding her hat in her hand,’ said Dean. Kirsten continued her journey into Dublin with the two children to meet her husband. She was helped and comforted by other passengers on board the Dart, but had no idea who the young man was. After an article in last week’s Bray People describing the incident, people were able to identify Dean as the person who had sprang into action to ensure the safety of the child. Kirsten has been in contact with him to thank him for what he did.
Kirsten, who lives in Wicklow town with her husband Tim and their children, said last week that Sarah had a bad bruise on her hip but was otherwise uninjured and didn’t seem to be troubled by having fallen.
She referred to everyone who helped her that day as ‘heroes’. ‘There’s no words to do justice to the gratitude I feel for those folk,’ she said.