Life of five-year-old son of Dungloe man saved after choking scare

The five-year-old son of a Dungloe man whose life was saved by an emergency nurse after he went into cardiac arrest has shared his story.

Little Jack Gallagher choked on spaghetti at his Dublin home.

His father, Finian, who hails from Dungloe, ran to his next door neighbour, Lorna McSwiggan-Martin.

In an emotional interview with the Late Late Show, Finian’s wife, Louise, described the almost fatal incident as ‘the most traumatic time of our lives’.

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The traumatic incident happened just five weeks after Lorna received a kidney transplant.

Lorna's emergency nurse training immediately sent her into ‘auto pilot’ and her first impulse on hearing that Jack was in trouble was to call out to her husband Richard to phone an ambulance.

After a unsuccessful attempt at the Heimlich manoeuvre on Jack, she quickly progressed to administering CPR on the non-responsive child.

Jack had gone into cardiac arrest. A defibrillator, which Finian frantically retrieved from a nearby shop, could not help save his son who had, by then, no pulse and was non-conducive to shock therapy.

Lorna described how she used all the strength she had while still recovering from her major transplant operation to continue with CPR for a total of nine to 10 minutes.

Paramedics arrived and took over by carrying Jack to the ambulance where the young boy ‘miraculously came back to life’ and sat up.

Jack was transported to CHI Crumlin’s Emergency Department, where Lorna had previously worked, and underwent an examination and some tests which revealed that he had escaped completely unscathed from the traumatic incident before being discharged two days later.

Jack's mother, Louise, who was rushed home from work in Dun Laoghaire, told Ryan Tubridy how her son was 'sitting up and crying and he looked horrific with no colour in his face'.

Louise described how Lorna and Jack 'shared big hug that will stay in my heart forever;.

She said: “He didn’t understand what that hug meant to our family.”

The story was described by Tubridy as a 'Christmas miracle'.

The Irish Kidney Association is encouraging families when they gather for the festive season to share their wishes about organ donation while all around the country families of organ donors and transplant recipients are lighting candles over Christmas to remember organ donors who gave the gift of life to others.

Individuals who wish to support organ donation are encouraged to Share their Wishes and keep the reminders of their decision available by carrying the organ donor card, permitting Code 115 to be included on their driver’s licence or having the ‘digital organ donor card’ App on their smartphone.

Organ Donor Cards can be requested by visiting the IKA website www.ika.ie/get-a-donor-card or to your phone, phoning the Irish Kidney Association on 01 6205306 or Free text the word DONOR to 50050.