In the midst of life....

interlocked

I want to record this because it deserves so much recognition.

Myself and a friend were having pints yesterday evening on the balcony of the Dead centre pub overlooking the Shannon, at the bridge in Athlone.

We weren't paying much attention, until we looked across at the other bank, and thought initially that a bunch of kids were throwing the life buoys into the river.

It developed so quickly, we saw someone in the water holding dragging/holding a body, whilst holding on to a buoy and another person pulling them by the buoy rope on to the slipway.

The person was completely unconscious, and my friend, who has unfortunately, a lot of experience in those matter, shook his head, and said look at the colour of him. As we were looking, a lad and a girl ran down at full speed onto the slipway and started CPR, pump pump pump, they never stopped, pump, pump, pump, you could see the effort they were making from across the river, my friend shook his head sadly, no hope, pump, pump, pump, it went on for what seemed like hours, but was at least 10- 15 minutes, a couple of guards ran down, but they couldn't do anything, pump, pump, pump, and then a gasp and the body moved, the ambulances arrived, two of them, they got him onto a stretcher, into the ambulance, immediate treatment and then off to hospital. Half a hour late and you'd never think anything had ever happened, the local scuba diving club arrived for their training session.

I only found out the story, today, whilst having a few pints in Sean's Bar, someone had ran into the bar and screamed that someone was in the water, one of the customers, a man from the Aran Islands ran out and jumped into the water and grabbed the man, the barmaid ( I think her name was Grace, sincere apologies if I have it wrong) who had trained in the Order of Malta, ran down to the slip-way and along with another lad, commenced to pump, pump pump. He had no pulse, was gone blue, but they refused to give up, they resuscitated him and kept him alive until the ambulance arrived, hopefully he'll be all right.

Afterwards, she went BACK to work, shaking, until they told to sit down and threw a few (fair few!)drinks into her.

She was in again at 5 this evening, to do her shift, and I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to express my appreciation, I saw a few people, that did, and she was embarrassed by the attention.

I can't really overstate the heroism of these people, that man would be dead but for their actions. Ordinary People. Extraordinary actions. May life be good to you all.

Gremlinertia

Jequ0n do not post on this thread again.