The Health Service Executive in the northeast says it will review the case of the Co Meath man who required urgent treatment to relieve pressure on an aneurysm but for whom an intensive care bed could not be found in any major hospital with vascular surgery facilities.
The family of retired farmer Emmet Nulty (68) said they believed they saved his life by signing him out of hospital in Navan, which does not have a vascular surgeon, and driving him themselves to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin.
Mr Nulty was immediately admitted to Beaumont, where there is a vascular surgeon and support team. He was later transferred to St Vincent's hospital and operated on within 12 hours. Afterwards he was told it had saved his life.
Doctors in Our Lady's Hospital in Navan had admitted him to the intensive care unit and spent hours phoning every major hospital around the country, including Dublin, Cork and Galway, to secure a bed for him in the intensive care unit of a hospital that had a vascular surgeon.
Their efforts were fruitless and staff in Our Lady's told his son and daughter, Derek and Celine, that they could do no more for him.
"This was a Friday evening and we knew it could have burst at any time and if we had stayed in Navan over the weekend that we would not have had a bed in Dublin until Monday," Celine said. "If it burst in Navan it would be too late."
It was midnight on Friday and with her brother she quickly reached the decision to take Mr Nulty out of Navan hospital and bring him to Beaumont themselves. They were confident his condition was serious enough that he would be admitted.
He was given a bed in Beaumont four hours later and the following afternoon a bed was secured for him in ICU in St Vincent's hospital. He was operated on seven weeks ago.
A spokeswoman for the HSE in the northeast said last night that it would be contacting the family and that it would review Mr Nulty's case.
Mr Nulty, a retired farmer from Meath Hill, said he owed his life to the decision his children took. "The doctor came to me the day after the operation and said 'You are lucky, it you had not had the operation I might not be talking to you this morning'. I am very thankful to have come out of this."
He had signed himself out of Our Lady's Hospital after helping to remove his monitors and needles and, in his pyjamas, he got into the family car and was driven to Dublin.