A teenager who was seriously injured and trapped at the side of a busy motorway is lucky to be alive thanks to two quick thinking gardaí.
Gardaí Roisín O’Donnell and Rose McGlynn were out on patrol along the M1 at Charleville, Co Louth, when they were waved down by a panicked couple standing by their parked vehicle on the hard shoulder two weeks ago.
Their 19-year-old son, Tabish had sustained an injury to his arm while at home and his parents were driving him to hospital when they got a flat tyre.
Both gardaí quickly realised that Tabish’s injury was extremely serious. His bone was protruding and he was experiencing significant blood loss.
In a statement on social media gardaí said: “Gardaí are trained to know that in an emergency every second counts and neither Garda O’Donnell nor Garda McGlynn hesitated.”
Both gardaí took Tabish’s mother’s jacket and his father’s trouser belt and together they made a tourniquet to stem the bleeding.
Tabish’s condition was quickly deteriorating and an ambulance was still some distance away. While Garda McGlynn carefully moved him to the garda vehicle to urgently get him to hospital, Garda O’Donnell performed traffic management duties on the road.
Garda McGlynn rushed the teenager to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda with activated lights and sirens but despite Garda O’Donnell’s best efforts to keep him alert, Tabish was falling in and out of consciousness and his arm was starting to turn pale.
He required emergency care and so the gardaí got in touch with the hospital’s Emergency Department to give them advance warning of his condition and he was immediately seen by medics on arrival.
“His medical team noted that had Garda O’Donnell and Garda McGlynn not administered life-saving treatment and applied a tourniquet when they had, Tabish would not have survived,” the garda statement continued.
Having undergone complex surgery in Connolly Hospital, Dublin on his arm the following day, Tabish’s life was no longer in danger and he is now in recovery.
The gardaí added: “Some might think that ‘hero’ is too often cited, but we can say categorically that the quick-thinking, calm and measured response as a team that afternoon make our colleagues, Garda Roisín O’Donnell and Garda Rose McGlynn, true heroes”.
