The Keisha
Heroic friends tell how they rescued boy from drowning
Kelvin Kearns with his certificate TWO heroic girls have been honoured for saving the life of a six-year-old boy who was drowning in a pond.
12, and 13-year-old rescued the child from the water and revived him using CPR.
They were among 21 people presented with National Bravery Awards by Ceann Comhairle Sean O Fearghail.
He said the event offered “an opportunity to celebrate the courage of ordinary people who risk their own safety to protect their fellow citizens”.
Krista and Keisha were walking through an area of wasteland to a housing estate in Graigeowen, Co Carlow, on August 13 last year when they were approached by two concerned parents unable to find their three sons.
The girls offered to help look for them and came across the older boys who were desperately looking on as their brother repeatedly went under the water in a mud-filled pond. Krista jumped in to rescue the child and drag him back to the shore where managed to revive him with CPR.
Speaking to the Irish Mirror after they received Certificates of Bravery, Keisha, from Gortnahowan in Co Carlow, said: “I was really shocked and really scared and was crying throughout the whole thing.
Andrew Johnston, centre, with Sean O Fearghail and broadcaster Mary Kennedy I didn’t want him to die. I didn’t know how to do CPR at all.
“I had seen it on the TV, I had watched this show about people being rescued in Australia and knew you had to bang on the person’s chest, press really hard.
“I kept pressing on his chest and then started hitting his back and then he just vomited. I was so happy, I thought he had died as his lips were blue. He lives in the estate beside us so he always waves and smiles any time he sees us now.” Yesterday’s reception at Farmleigh House in Dublin’s Phoenix Park brought together the recipients of Certificates of Bravery, while five people were also awarded Bronze Medals of Bravery.
The annual honours are awarded by Comhairle na Mire Gaile – the Deeds of Bravery Council – which was founded in 1947 to enable State recognition of exceptional acts of courage.
, 31, was honoured for saving two girls from drowning.
The mother of two, from Midleton in Co Cork, heard the cries of a 10-year-old child being swept out to sea and went to her aid before spotting another girl in the distance.
Martin Cullinane