Sunday World
Sunday 1 July 2012
By Lynne Kelleher
A GAA player who was brought back to life after being clinically dead for four minutes has spoken of his joy at being able to walk down the aisle with his fiancé yesterday.
Dublin teacher Seaghan Kearney was hit with the same sudden cardiac arrest as England-based soccer star Fabrice Muamba, who collapsed in front of millions of horrified TV viewers.
When the Junior C player suffered an almost identical attack in the middle of a five-a-side game, his friends rushed to a local fireman in the GAA clubhouse and he used the last blast on the club’s defibrillator which was almost out of batter charge to bring him back to life.
DONATED
The 31 year old told how he owes his life to the Dublin fireman Terry O’Brien and the Cormac McAnallen family after their campaigning led to a defibrillator being donated to his club.
The thankful teacher, who has been raising awareness of the importance of the heart machines, was delighted that the fireman who saved his life was by his side when he swapped his vows with his new wife Mary Lynch.
“He is on the alter with me in case anything goes wrong. The defibrillator is on stand-by”, he joked.
The wedding took place at St Patrick’s church in Mohill, Co Sligo yesterday before they posed for more pics at Lough Rynn later. “It is a celebration of life and ourselves and our friends. They night that it happened to me most of my friends were there and it was a very tough time for them”.
He said his last memory before the attack was looking at potential wedding venues with his fiancé in January 2011 the day before he collapsed.
He said he knows he was very lucky to survive the heart attack out of the blue.
Experts say his team-mates had just four minutes to save his life after he suffered Sudden Cardiac Arrest during the indoor football match at St Oliver Plunketts GAA Club.
He said: “In the middle of the game I collapsed and my heart stopped and I suppose clinically I was dead on the floor. I think the friends told me it was roughly four to five minutes”.
He said he knows today that he was blessed that local fireman Terry O’Brien was doing a stint of volunteer work behind the bar that day.
He said: “Terry O’Brien came down and he realized I hadn’t a pulse. He what to do. I was very lucky”.