THE PARENTS of a six-week-old baby have thanked the Kesh woman who they say saved their son’s life on Friday afternoon.
Harry McGaughey, father of new-born Oscar, described mother-of-two Julie Stronge as an ‘angel sent from heaven’ after she administered CPR on the baby when he fell ill on Friday.
Oscar was with his mother, Kirsty Fee, when he fell ill close to lunchtime on Friday.
Kirsty (25), from Enniskillen, then took the baby outside where, Harry described, Julie caught up with them and administered CPR and continued until and ambulance was called. Oscar remains on life support in the Royal Children’s Hospital in Belfast.
Harry told the Fermanagh Herald: “It’s indescribable, I know my child is sick now – but if it wasn’t for Julie the child would be buried by now.”
Julie works at Praxis in Kesh, and is the chairman of the Kesh Defibrillator Group.
Harry (27) was not with Kirsty and Oscar at the time, however, explained that the child appeared to get into difficulty without warning.
“There was a text message on Anna’s (Townsend, Oscar’s great-aunt) phone at 12.23 from Kirsty saying that she was going to have a shower after a cup of coffee, and then she must have went down and checked on Oscar then and a text message came at 12.27 saying there was something wrong with the child.
“She must have got the child and run out onto the street, and then Julie saw her – and she ran after her and the child and started doing CPR straight away.”
At that point an ambulance was called, and Julie continued the CPR until the ambulance arrived.
Harry recalled how he heard about his son: “I just got a message from Kirsty, obviously she sent me a message in despair. I just got a message saying ‘Oscar is dead’. I thought it was misspelt or something. So I rang up, asked what’s happened.
“I heard all the commotion in the background, there wasn’t really much said – I got straight into the car towards Kesh, I got on the phone to Anna who said that the child was already on the way up to the hospital in Enniskillen.”
Harry said that they do not know at this stage what caused the child’s illness.
“He was in his moses basket, when Kirsty found him, he was yellow, that’s when Kirsty picked him up and there was no movement and she ran outside then.”
Oscar is currently in the Royal Hospital Belfast, and remains very ill. He is still on life support.
“Basically you have to cope, you have to be strong. You can cry all you want but it’s not going to do any good. You just have to stay positive. Babies can do some miraculous things.”
And Harry was full of praise for Julie: “It’s indescribable. No words can describe how grateful we are for what she has done. I think more people should learn first aid and CPR – it could happen to anyone at any time.
“She’s an angel sent from heaven – she was meant to be there at that time. If Kirsty had been anywhere else that child was a goner. If that was meant to happen to the child, then Julie was meant to be there. I can’t describe how grateful we are, I don’t know the woman, I haven’t met her – but when I do I’m going to give her a big hug.”
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