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“There are two cases I remember vividly. One of them was the first cardiac arrest I ever saw. I think I was only two weeks in the job and even though I was prepared, it was quite a shock. I can remember every detail and I can see every minute of trying to save the patient’s life… There have been so many since then that I’ve lost count … So the second one is vivid not because of what happened but because of meeting the person about a year later. I was off-duty, collecting the kids from school and down the road from the school there was a man in his fifties, he was out for a walk when he went into cardiac arrest. I have done the same procedure so many times before so when I arrived, I just got to work. After the ambulance arrived and he was in safe hands I just went about my day and didn’t really think about it too much after that. It was only about 30 minutes of my life, but it was a full year of recovery for him. Luckily the man made a full recovery and he and his family tracked me down and set up a meeting. I remember this case so vividly because that was the first time that someone could really thank me for saving his life and it had a huge impact on me. You know, when you have a job where you get to save lives, sometimes it becomes routine and you forget to think about how much of an impact you have, not only the patients but also on their families.”
This is Colin Nugent from the Dublin Fire Brigade. Colin was nominated and shortlisted to ‘The Dublin Hero’ category, one of the 16 categories for 98FM‘s Best of Dublin Awards. Vote for your favourite Dublin people and places here: http://www.98fm.com/bestofdublin