Neil McManus says there is no way his father would still be here if it was not for a defibrillator
Antrim and Cushendall hurler Neil McManus explains the importance of all GAA clubs having a functional defibrillator onsite, and recounts how his father had a close shave in 2015.
Wednesday 24 March 2021 06:26, UK
Neil McManus appreciates just how lucky he is to still have his father Hugh by his side.
But it could have been a far different scenario had a Saturday afternoon in 2015 taken an alternate turn.
Hugh McManus, father of the Antrim and Cushendall hurler, suffered a heart attack. And were it not for the swift actions of Neil, the emergency services and a neighbour, along with having a defibrillator available in the local GAA club, there could have been tragic consequences.
"My father, it would be religion on a Saturday in our house for him to head off to play golf," Neil explained, recounting the episode.
"He just began to feel a little unwell when he was playing and thankfully the other guy he was playing with advised him to go home, just because he was feeling warm and his chest was a bit tight.
"I've actually never known my father to be ill, that was the first time ever and I had a giggle at him when he came back in because it was raining and I said 'you didn't stick it too long'.
"He went into the other living room in the house that no one is ever in, and he lay down on the sofa. We knew that was very strange for him. He has his one seat in the house and if he is not there, he is in bed. I just rang an ambulance and said I think my father is having a heart attack. I didn't really know if he was or wasn't I just wasn't sure. I wasn't used to him being unwell.
"I didn't even know there was a first responders' unit in our area, I was pretty unfamiliar with the whole concept to be honest. A local man called Joe Burns came to our house within five minutes of me making that phone call to find out where number 12 was and that is where our house was.
"He just knew by the look on my face. He said, 'is your father alright?' And he just brushed me aside and came in and cut the shirt open and said 'go get your beard trimmers'. We shaved his chest and had the [AED] pads on ready to go before he had the heart attack. It was incredible how quickly he got to work, Joe is a local crew member of the RNLI in Cushendall and he got training through them and without him that day, there is no way my father would still be there.
"The ambulance was there really quickly, within about three quarters of an hour, we are about an hour from Belfast so they were making good time to get down into the Glens. We were just incredibly fortunate as a family.
"It was a scary 10 minutes alright. But we brought him around on the second attempt. We were so lucky. How many times have these guys gone to houses to try to revive somebody, and try to save a life, and not been able to? I think it was the first call in something like five years that they (the local responders) saved somebody. Usually it's a different outcome."
McManus fully realises it was a close shave.
"We got very lucky on the day, how Joe was at home whenever the phone call came and he was right beside the hurling field, where our AED is stored on outside wall," he noted.
"He was up at the house within five minutes. Without him, [my father] wouldn't be here today. It's massive because to be able to have him there at my own wedding, and to have him there, a couple of years ago we won our club championship, him being involved in that team and stuff. They're big big parts of my life as well as his. Without that AED being available that day, he wouldn't have been here."
And if Neil thought that such occurrences were rare, he would soon realise the contrary the following day.
"It was actually the day before we played Loughgiel in the county semi-final," he recalled.
"Liam Watson, his father took a heart attack the next day at the game while we were playing and an AED was used in Dunloy to revive him.
"The match was abandoned, obviously, because of what happened to Liam Watson's father, but we met at the hospital that night because his father when he came into the hospital was rolled into the bed next to my father, so there was great craic that evening."
Without that AED being available that day, he wouldn't have been here.
Aged 59 in 2015, Hugh was a healthy and active individual. And it was an eye-opener about the importance of having defibrillators available.
Neil, who was speaking at the launch of the GAA Community Heart Programme which is encouraging all clubs to have a functioning defibrillator onsite, now knows just how important they can be.
"Like every village that is GAA-orientated, the villages are built around the pitch nearly," he explained.
"It's no different in Cushendall. The vast majority of our playing population can walk to the pitch. It's in the village, like so many other pitches. There's always activity around them.
"You can still get the defib if you needed it. It's just a central location.
"That's why it's so important that we have one at every club in the country."
