An Irish rugby fan has performed CPR on a man in New Zealand after his heart stopped beating and he collided with several parked cars.
ara Hartigan (42), from Limerick, gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to Dean Herewini (56) after his heart stopped when he drove into Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand on Saturday.
Ms Hartigan, who leads a tour of Irish rugby fans around New Zealand, was attending a pre-match party in Eden Park when she heard a bang followed by a scream.
“It’s the best feeling in the world,” Ms Hartigan told the… Otago Daily Times to help Mr. Herewini. “I didn’t know if I was doing it right, but it worked, thank goodness.”
The former lifeguard and arena manager remembered her training, but still wasn’t convinced she was helping Mr. Herewini, a Waikato rugby union development officer.
Ms Hartigan gave Mr Herewini mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in his car. He doesn’t remember anything after driving his vehicle into a parking lot and wedged one car before crashing into five others when he fell on the wheel.
“We were trying to get the chair back,” Ms. Hartigan said. “I can’t tell you how long it took, but the sweat was pouring off me.
“I yelled, ‘Do you hear me, come back to us’ as you see in the movies. Then he took a deep breath and just woke up.”
She said the rest of the evening, which she spent watching the All Blacks beat Ireland, was a blur.
“I have to admit that I cried a little that night,” she told the newspaper.
Ms Hartigan had only been informed a week earlier that she would be in New Zealand, having started a new job.
“The stars were definitely aligned for us,” she said.
Mr Herewini’s twin brother, Phil, told the paper that Ms Hartigan’s quick thinking had saved his sibling.
“We’re very lucky that someone like that jumped in and did what she did. It could have ended up a bit messy,” he said.
“You read about these things. You see them on TV, but when you experience it first hand, it’s incredible. We are so humbled and grateful.”
Mr Herewini was treated at Auckland City Hospital. He had taken his daughter and her boyfriend to the game when he became ill.
His twin brother told how his brother had collapsed and “put his right foot on the accelerator and went into the next five cars”.
Mr. Herewini’s daughter, Kea, panicked and called her uncle, and at that moment Mrs. Hartigan rushed to help.
“This lady came out and came over to her and found that he had stopped breathing. She started CPR while he was in the car and he regained consciousness,” Kea said.
In Auckland, it was reported that his heart had stopped beating for at least a minute.
Ms Hartigan said: “I didn’t know what was going on. His daughter was clearly very upset and was crying and calling for help.
“It just happened so quickly. People called an ambulance, but no one went in to help. It was just weird.”
Phil Herewini posted a public appeal on the Auckland Irish Club Facebook on Monday to find Ms Hartigan to thank her for saving his brother’s life.
He wrote: “This was a life-saving situation and (we would) love to pass on our love and thanks to this lady if anyone knows her…”
The pair have been talking to each other ever since and Ms Hartigan told the paper how nice it was to talk to Mr Herewini and hear that his brother was in a “good place”.
She plans to meet Mr. Herewini before leaving the country later this month.