Avondhu Blackwater Partnership Driver Saves Passengers Life

A driver with Avondhu Blackwater Partnerships’ Rural Transport Scheme was involved in a life saving situation that resulted in a man being rushed to hospital and receiving emergency aid. Mr. Larry Horgan who has been a driver for the Scheme for several years was due to collect an elderly passenger from his home in the Tower area but when he did not show Mr. Horgan became concerned and decided to make sure nothing was wrong.

Mr. Horgan takes up the narrative; “We always collect him from his front door, which is a part of the service of the Rural Transport Programme, but on this particular day he didn’t show up, which was unusual for him. He’d had a stroke in the past and I just got a bad feeling so I parked up the bus, took a walk around the house and there he was, lying on the ground”.

Mr. Horgan contacted the Gardai who told him to force his way in to the house, which he did, and he then proceeded to administer aid to the man until the Gardai and the ambulance service arrived shortly after. The man was rushed to hospital and medical personnel subsequently said if he had not been spotted when he was it could have made a huge difference to the efforts to treat him. He had suffered another stroke and had been lying on the ground in his front room overnight.

Damien Tobin the Coordinator of the Rural Transport Programme commented, “one of the strengths of the Rural Transport Programme is that is built on door to door collections, and the knowledge the drivers build up of their passengers over time. In Larry’s case that meant he was in the right place at the right time, and he remembered the passenger had suffered a stroke some years previously. Regular users of the Transport Scheme therefore have that extra set of eyes to count on”

Mr. Horgan himself said, “From a medical perspective it was fortunate that I was scheduled to collect him, it would have been that night before someone was due to call which would have meant he was lying there for nearly 24 hours. I was just relieved I was able to help”