Sisters honoured for saving baby

Tánaiste and Minister for Health Mary Harney yesterday presented a special award to two Order of Malta cadets who saved the life of a 12-week-old baby by administering cardio-pulmonary resuscitation.

Sisters Mary (16) and Róisín (14) O'Malley, from Louisburgh, Co Mayo, were honoured for saving their nephew, Ethan O'Malley, a premature baby who suffered from a breathing condition.

While minding the baby early one morning, Mary noticed he was having difficulty breathing. She immediately called the emergency services and began administering cardio-pulmonary resuscitation techniques which she had learned during two years in the Order of Malta.

She said that by the time her sister Róisín arrived, the baby had stopped breathing. Róisín took over resuscitating the baby until an Order of Malta ambulance arrived and tended to the emergency.

Baby Ethan's mother Judy said yesterday doctors had told her that if Mary and Róisín had not been trained in cardio-pulmonary resuscitation he would not have survived.

"As it was he suffered no brain damage, although he had stopped breathing. I can only thank God for the girls' training which saved Ethan's life," she said.

The national director of the Order of Malta, Peadar Ward, said the action of Mary and Róisín in a life-or-death situation was a fine example of the type of training the organisation was providing around the country to young people aged 10 to 16. "Even if one life was saved as a result of the training it would be more than enough," he said.

The award of the special bronze medal to Mary and Róisín marked the launch of the Order of Malta's "sticky plaster day", the organisation's new fund-raising initiative.