Cian (9) saves baby in electric shock trauma

Cormac Byrne

A clever nine-year-old rescued his baby brother after spotting that a faulty decoration was electrocuting him.

Quick-thinking Cian O'Hara managed to unplug the electric candle, saving his baby brother Ronan from serious harm.

Baby Ronan, the son of Eilish and Pat O'Hara, had an electric shock after he managed to pull a light from its holder.

The incident happened at the O'Hara family home in Toneywarden, Granard, Co Longford.

Dad Pat has told of his horror at finding his baby son lying unconscious on the ground and turned a "deathly colour".

Shouting

"I was minding the kids because Eilish was doing the last of the Christmas shopping," said Pat.

"The next thing I knew was that my son Cian began shouting at me that something had happened to Ronan and he ran and plugged the decoration out from the mains.

"When I looked down, Ronan was lying there with his eyes closed.

"His eyes had turned yellow in colour and his lips were swollen."

Pat began CPR on the tot and to his immense relief, baby Ronan began to cry.

"It seemed to take him an age to come to, I've never been as happy to hear a child cry.

"It was after that I realised that there was a smell of something burning and then I realised that Ronan's two hands were burnt. It became clear that he picked up the Christmas decoration and had pulled the light from the holder in which it was placed.

"The light had been stuck to his little hands and it was only when Cian unplugged the device that his hands became detached from it."

Baby Ronan was rushed to Mi-Doc in Longford Town after the December 23 incident, who then referred him to the Midlands Regional Hospital in Mullingar.

Due to the extent of the burns on his little hands, he was subsequently transferred from Mullingar to Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, where an extensive examination of his injuries was carried out.

He was kept in overnight in Crumlin before being discharged on Christmas Eve and is expected to make a full recovery.

"The burns on his hands are healing but he hasn't been sleeping right since, he'll get over that and we're just happy he's alive," Pat added.

"I really do believe that Cian's efforts to unplug the decoration is what saved Ronan's life."

Video

Pat attributes his son's quick-thinking to a safety video his wife brought home for her children.

"I had noticed alright that Cian had watched it a few times and he told me that there was a section in the DVD about electrocution and what to do in the event of a situation like that arising in the home."

hnews@herald.ie