'What I was worried about was that he was okay': Cork hero comes forward following appeal by grateful mother

Following a public appeal by a Cork mother looking to find the stranger who saved her son’s life from choking, The Echo and Irish Examiner employee Kevin Cramer has come forward as the hero who gave her six-year-old vital CPR.

When Martin O’Connor started choking on a sweet in his home in Mayfield on Thursday afternoon, his mother Mary Long O’Connor immediately dialled 999, and started to call for help from her front door.

Nearby, Echo employee Kevin Cramer was on the way home from a swim with his own son, and had stopped in SuperValu in Mayfield. When he heard cries for help, he rushed to the aid of Mary and her neighbours, who were on the phone to emergency services as Martin was struggling to breathe.

“A woman said to me there’s a boy choking here you have to help, so I ran into the house.

"Here was the little boy on the ground, he was on his back and he was choking on a sweet,” Kevin told the Echo.

Without any first aid training, Kevin took instruction from paramedics over the phone, and delivered CPR to Martin for four or five minutes, before emergency services arrived and the boy was taken to hospital.

“I was worried about the little boy really because he was unconscious when I was doing it… He obviously choked, he went unconscious, but his breathing started again and I just kept going with the CPR,” he said.

“I was fine doing it, I just did it, and then afterwards you would be in shock. I just felt a bit sick to my stomach… what I was worried about was that he was okay." 

As Martin was rushed away, there was no time for Mary and Kevin to exchange details. Martin was treated in hospital following the medical emergency, and is now back home.

Kevin said he tried to call to the house again over the weekend, but nobody was there.

“They were probably visiting him in the hospital, and I just called into the nearby pharmacy… and I asked the girl in there was the little boy okay and she said yes, so that’s all I wanted to hear,” said Kevin.

He had said that he planned to call to the house again to try and make contact with Mary the next time he was passing to find out if Martin was okay, but having seen her public callout for the stranger who saved her son’s life, said he is happy to hear that Martin is now on the mend.

The Echo has been in contact with both Kevin and Mary to put them in touch with each other.