‘Learn first aid’ says Cork dad who helped save his baby’s life

A young Cork couple have encouraged people to learn basic life-saving skills which proved critical in saving their baby girl Alaya’s life over the weekend.

Shane Keane and Courtney Coffey lived through every parent’s worst nightmare on Saturday morning when their baby girl Alaya began to choke on a piece of toast.

Speaking to Neil Prendeville on RedFM yesterday, Mr Keane said he was upstairs in their home when his partner Courtney called out for him when she realised Alaya was choking.

Mr Keane said Alaya was “completely blue” when he got downstairs.

“There was no sound out of her,” he told the Neil Prendeville Show. “She just started changing colour.”

Having been trained in first aid through his job, and specifically in child first aid last year, Mr Keane began back slaps and CPR while his dad rang for an ambulance which they were informed was 10 minutes out.

“I heard the ambulance would be 10 minutes so I said to my partner, we have to go in the car,” he said.

En route to the hospital, they passed by the fire station in Ballyvolane where they saw firefighters getting into a fire engine so they pulled up and called for help.

Mr Keane said he told them that his child wasn’t breathing and that they took her right away to work on her before the ambulance arrived and she was transported to Cork University Hospital where tests were carried out and it was confirmed that she was going to be okay.

Mr Keane thanked all of the firefighters involved in saving Alaya’s life and encouraged parents to learn child first aid.

Second officer with Cork City Fire Brigade, Victor Shine, said Alaya’s parents did “an amazing job” and that she was saved because of their quick thinking and also urged parents of young kids to take part in a first aid course.

Mr Shine said the crew who worked on Alaya were responding to the call when Alaya’s parents pulled up at the fire station.

“A vast proportion of our calls are medical calls of all different types and this is probably the most rewarding — the very young and the most vulnerable,” he said.

Mr Shine said time is critical in these scenarios and encouraged everyone to do a course on basic life saving to be prepared for such an incident.

“It’s a life skill that everybody should have,” he said.