Coastguard chopper checks in on abbie in clonkill

Little Abbie Mangan – just seven years old, and a pupil of Loughegar School – has the Irish coastguard service to thank for her life.
And it was due to the gratitude of Abbie and her parents, Martin and Sharon, that a coastguard helicopter was flown to Clonkill last week.
While on holiday in the Aran Islands in August of last year, Abbie suffered a deadly serious head injury when she came off a bicycle, and her head slammed into a wall.
Abbie’s mother, Sharon, tells of the dramatic events of that terrifying day:
“We just went for the weekend, along with Martin’s parents,” she recalls. She, Martin, Abbie’s twin, Jenna, and their other daughter, Briena, hired bikes to explore the island.
“We had great fun, and we were coming back, and there was a massive hill. “Abbie was in front, and she went down the hill and I pedalled as fast as I could but I couldn’t catch up with her.”
At the bottom of the hill, the road swerved – but Abbie was unable to make the turn, and she crashed into the wall, taking the hit directly on her forehead.
“We didn’t think it was quite as serious as it was at first, but we knew it was serious: she had quite a gash, and we knew she would need stitches.
“We went to the nearest house, and rang the doctor, and he said he’d meet us at the medical centre.”
There, Abbie suddenly took a seizure, and the doctor began using the defibrillator, and told the family to contact the coastguard.
During the eight minutes during which it took for the coastguard to arrive, they took it in turns applying CPR to Abbie.
Martin accompanied his daughter in the helicopter to the hospital in Galway, while Sharon and the rest of the family crossed by boat, and drove, under garda escort, to Galway.
“At the hospital, there were 14 or 15 doctors working on Abbie, and she went straight to ICU so they could stabilise her, and it took quite a few hours,” says Sharon.
When she was stabilised, Abbie was then taken by ambulance later that night to Beaumont, and operated on, and she was there for two weeks.
Martin Mangan, as it happens, works in Shannon, and he made it his business to travel to the coastguard station there to formally thank the crew for saving little Abbie’s life – and it was through this that last week’s visit happened.
Happily, she has made a full recovery, and she was delighted to see the helicopter and meet the crew last Wednesday, as she had no memory of her eventful first encounter with the crew and craft!