Advanced paramedic played vital role in saving life of Loughglynn man

The family of a Loughglynn man who suffered a life threatening asthma attack at Christmas have said that only for the presence of an advanced paramedic on the scene he would not be alive today.

The Hannelly family are now telling their story in a bid to support calls for a 24-hour advanced paramedic and the rapid response vehicle to be on call every day of the year as currently the service is not available on Monday from 8 p.m. to Tuesday at 8 a.m..

Vincent Hannelly (35), from Loughglynn, was diagnosed with asthma when he was a child but this never held him back as he played basketball, Gaelic and soccer.

However in 2019, he suffered a sudden life threatening respiratory illness, which he thankfully survived after being resuscitated.

Despite this setback he continued on with life as normal working as a forklift driver. However, last Christmas Vincent was struck down with a flu-like illness that left him with a bad fever that he couldn’t shake. As time went by he got worse.

In the early hours of Christmas morning Vincent’s father and sister ran to the ambulance base across the road from their home, only to discover that, despite two ambulances parked outside, no staff were on duty.

An ambulance was called and the rapid response vehicle carrying an advanced paramedic sped from the far side of Roscommon Town.

The advanced paramedic administered oxygen and life-saving medications to Vincent.

Two other ambulances arrived but neither had an advanced paramedic on board.

“I genuinely feel without him that Vincent wouldn’t have made it, because the other paramedics wouldn’t have been able to give Vincent all of that medication that he needed,” his sister Stephaine said.

She believes that if he had gotten sick on a Monday night her brother’s story might have had a very different ending. “You don’t get to choose the day you get sick. We don’t have that luxury.” She praised the work of all paramedics but said in some cases an advanced paramedic, who can administer more drugs, is needed.

Roscommon TD Deputy Claire Kerrane said that “this case shows the importance of the rapid response vehicle and why we need it available on a 24/7 basis, as was promised and as had been in place more or less since 2011. The idea of it being parked up for 12 hours every Monday night is not acceptable. I know overtime had been covering this shift and that overtime has since been pulled by the National Ambulance Service - that is not good enough. The overtime must be paid and our 24/7 cover must be restored. I will accept nothing less for the people I represent.

“I would encourage people to sign my online petition addressed to the Director of the National Ambulance Service and the Minister for Health, whom I raised the issue with this week in the Dáil. For those not online, you can ring my constituency office to add your name."