It was a beautiful sunny morning in August 2024 when volunteer crew member Dinny Kiely answered his beeper and set off with his colleagues from Cork City Missing Persons Search and Rescue.
The crew had been called out as part of an investigation to search for a mobile phone belonging to a person who had been found dead in the river.
Dinny and his fellow volunteers began their search as they had done many times before.
But just an hour later, the operation took a dramatic and unexpected turn.
Dinny suddenly collapsed in front of his fellow crew members.
With no time to lose, they immediately put their Community First Responder training into action. CPR was performed and shocks were administered as they fought to keep their colleague alive.
Dinny was clinically dead for four minutes, but his fellow crew members refused to give up.
By the time the paramedics arrived, the volunteers had managed to revive Dinny — giving him a chance of survival.
He was rushed to hospital, where he would spend six weeks, for three of those weeks, Dinny was in a coma.
Remarkably, he even celebrated his 60th birthday while unconscious. Against the odds, Dinny recovered.
Today, he is back doing what he loves — helping others and supporting his fellow volunteers with Cork City Missing Persons Search and Rescue.
His remarkable story has also been recognised by members of the National Ambulance Service, and Kieran Minahan Community Engagement with the National Ambulance Service presented Dinny’s fellow crew members with a plaque in recognition of their actions and commended them for the role they played in saving his life.
For Dinny, there is no doubt about how important those moments were.
He has since quit smoking, attends his doctor for regular check-ups and says he is incredibly grateful to everyone who played a part in his recovery.
Dinny describes himself as a “miracle” — a “dead man walking” who somehow lived to tell the tale.
And now he has a message for everyone.
Learn CPR – learn how to use a defibrillator and consider joining your local Community First Responder group.
Because Dinny knows better than most just how quickly life can change — and how the knowledge and courage of ordinary people can make the difference between life and death.
He says he owes his life to his fellow crew members, the paramedics, medical staff, his family and everyone who played a part in making sure he survived.
For Dinny, that sunny morning in August 2024 could have been the end of his story.
Instead, it became the beginning of another chapter — one he is profoundly grateful to be here to tell.
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