A CORK man has been rightly hailed as a hero after coming to the rescue of a three-year-old girl who was choking on jelly.
Paul Curtin was driving through Cork city centre when he spotted a woman in distress alongside a young girl experiencing serious difficulties breathing.
In a flash, he pulled his car over and came to help the child, delivering life-saving first aid to dislodge the jelly blocking her airways.
Incredibly, the mother didn’t manage to get his name or even speak to Paul before he was back on the road in his car
The three-year-old's family were eventually able to track Paul down with a little help from The Neil Prendeville Show on Cork’s Red FM.
Speaking on the show, Paul explained his side of the story.
“I was driving down MacCurtain Street and I saw this lady outside of her car and she was panicking,” he explained.
“I spotted that there was two children in the back of the car so I got out and went over to them and asked was she all right and could I help her with anything.
“She said, “The child is choking”. She was in such a panic she couldn’t even open the door of the car.
“I opened the door, undid the seat belt and took the child out and put her over my knee, then I gave her a sharp slap in between the shoulder blades.
“Whatever was in her mouth was dislodged so I gave her back to her mother and told her I would take her to the hospital if I was her.
“Then I just got back in the car and drove off.”
Paul was only able to administer the life-saving First Aid as a result of a course he took as part of his work for Enable Ireland - and he was keen to encourage others to learn these skills.
“You do these courses and you think, “Ah I will never have to use any of this”,” he told Neil.
“But yesterday it just automatically came back to me and I just did it.
“Her lips were gone blue and by looking at her face I could tell she was losing oxygen.
“The poor child was getting panicky as well.”
“It makes me feel proud, I am very emotional at the moment,’ he said.
“I just kind of did it and carried on, thirty seconds of my life saved that child’s life.
“She just gulped in a large bit of air so I knew she was ok so I just handed her back over to her mother.”
As a reward for his heroic efforts, Red M handed him a big box of barbecue supplies along with a voucher to use at a restaurant of his choice once they reopen.
