The Sunday World magazine
May 22, 2011
Sally Hegarty says she hopes the tragic death of her teen son Rory will help raise awareness about sudden cardiac death.
FOR MY CHILD TO GO TO BED AND TO NOT WAKE UP, THAT JUST MADE NO SENSE …. IT’S VERY RAW
Denise Smith
Rory Hegarty went to bed a healthy 16 year old boy, but by morning the pleasant student had tragically passed away.
Dealing with the loss of a child is devastating for any parent, but for Dubliners Sally and Dermot Hegarty the tragedy was magnified by the sudden and unexplainable nature of their charismatic and energetic son’s death.
Speaking two years on from Rory’s passing, Sally hopes that her eldest son’s story will raise vital awareness of sudden cardiac death (SCD).
“Rory was 100 per cent healthy as far as I was concerned. There was never any indication that he was unwell,” says the mum of three.
“If your child is sick or even in an accident it somehow makes sense because it happened for a reason but for your child to go to bed and to not wake up again, that just made no sense to me.”
What Sally could not have known in the early days following her son’s death, was that the lively Terenure College student was a victim of sudden cardiac death, which claims lives in an instant and is answerable for the deaths of up to 80 seemingly fit and healthy young people in Ireland every year.
“The hardest thing to understand is that Rory’s post-mortem showed no cardiac abnormality.
“His death was put down to an electrical fault in his heart, possibility caused by an inherited gene or one that mutated during his lifetime, but otherwise he was perfectly healthy” says the mum.
“Of course it is still very raw. I suppose in some way the pain changes, it’s so unreal for the first year but even now I am sitting here saying “am I actually giving this interview:”, thinking “could it really have happened?”, but I am hopeful that Rory’s story will raise vital awareness”.
The ambitious 5th-year student was an academic achiever and dreamed of becoming an actuary, a college course that demands 600 points But for the fun-loving sports enthusiast there was no end to his talents.
“He was so full of life”, says Sally with a smile.
“Rory really was the centre of everything, he had a brilliant social life and was a real sports man but he was very studious too.”
On Monday, February 23 2009 Rory should have been chatting and having fun with friends as he made his way to class, but instead his family were struggling to cope with the youngster’s untimely death.
Sally recalls: “Rory was absolutely fine when he went up to bed and I popped up at around 11pm and nothing was amiss.”
But when Sally failed to rouse the outgoing teenager the next morning she instinctively knew something was wrong. “I called him for school at 7:40am but he didn’t respond,” says the devastated mum.
“He looked like he was asleep but I knew something was not right and realised he wasn’t breathing.
“I started cardiac massage and within minutes my home was flooded with the emergency services and gardai. In this unimaginably difficult time their empathy and kindness was something that I will always remember”.
SCD is more common than people now and has only come into public awareness due to a number of high-profile deaths including Tyrone GAA player Cormac McAnallen, who died in 2004.
Now thanks to the charity CRY (Cardiac Risk in the Young), a free screening and treatment programme is available for people at risk, a vital service that was introduced to Tallaght Hospital in 2007. SADS (Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome) is another organisation which offers counselling and support to families affected by SCD.
Sally explains: “I was contacted by SADS who were and still are fantastic.
“I am involved with them now, they reached out to me in the very early days when I was in darkness.” But Sally admits more needs to be done.
“I think it is vital that defibrillators are provided in schools, sports complexes and even shopping centres,” she says.
“Ultimately there is still a lot of work needed to be done in terms of statistics and research because there are still so many unanswered questions out there”.
CRY relies soley on donations, so if you would like to give to CRY to go cry.ie or see sads.ie for more information on sudden cardiac death.