MEMORABLE NIGHT FOR PJ O’BRIEN
FRIENDS, family and colleagues gathered in the Westcourt Hotel last Friday night to wish PJ O’Brien well as he retired from his role as Paramedic Supervisor at the Cottage Hospital after almost 30 years with the service.
PJ, who lives in Termonfeckin, covered his last shift on Sunday, November 26th - 28 years and one day exactly to when he first started in the job.
Originally from Naas in County Kildare PJ married Drogheda woman Carmel Fay in 1986 and couple lived in Naas for a number of years before deciding to relocate back to Drogheda.
PJ had been working for the healthboard Daycare Centre in Naas and after sending out his CV to the healthboard in the north east, he was called for an interview with Chief Ambulance Officer Paddy Conaty and subsequently got the job.
PJ recalls: ‘At that time, the ambulance service was moving from the hospitals to be a separate identity at the Cottage Hospital. There was a lot of change going on, it was all new. They had to form a station of ten people.’
PJ started work with Seamus Townley, the late Dick Cooney and Austin Byrne from the Lourdes, Jimmy Nannery, Joe McDermot and the late John Boylan from St Mary’s and the three other new recruits, Declan O’Connor, Oliver Reilly and Michael Seaman.
‘ This was the first independent ambulance service in the north east. The call would go to Navan control and Navan would dispatch the call to the nearest ambulance. There were two frontline ambulances but also one spare in the event of a breakdown or a major incident where off duty personnel could come in. Most of the calls in those days were localised within a 20 mile radius.’
PJ said the scope of what ambulance personnel can do has changed hugely over his time with the service.
‘When I started we could only give oxygen and pain relief with Entonix but that was it in those days. Now we have EMTs, paramedics and advanced paramedics who can do so much more.’
He said he participated in an upskilling training programme in 1993 which would have been the start of what is now known of EMT training.
‘ That’s when you could see extra skills being brought in and patient monitoring and of course the use of defibrilators for the first time so there were massive changes around this time.’
Some time later PJ was promoted to the role of Leading Paramedic,a job now known as Paramedic Supervisor, where he was responsible for rosters, leave, vehicle maintenance, stock checks etc
Some of the most memorable callouts he has attended was assisting at numerous births over the years, including once in the securty hut at Mosney.
‘ The delivery in Mosney was actually twins and I assisted Austin Byrne. The first baby was born and it wasn’t breathing so he handed it to me and then the second baby was born healthy. Thankfully the first baby started to breath within minutes so a happy outcome thank god. Then after the second baby arrived the woman was still having contractions, someone said ‘she’s going to have a third’ and her partner fainted! Luckily for him it was just the placenta instead of a third baby!’
PJ said he was very lucky to have worked with such great people down through the years and up until his retirement. ‘ The guys in the station have been amazing, they reall have. I can’t thank them enough,’ he said.
He was joined at the party by his wife Carmel, sons Sean and Ciaran, daughter Eimear and grandson Noah as well as extended family, colleagues and friends.