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rush to get defibs

Family of miracle boy saved by defibrillator after collapsing in school playground in cardiac arrest launch campaign to have lifesaving devices installed around their town

Nine-year-old Sean Kelly's family have backed the Irish Sun’s Show Some Heart campaign to get AEDs installed in every school in the country

MIRACLE boy Sean Kelly’s family have launched a campaign to get ­defibrillators installed around their town.

Little Sean was revived by a defib after collapsing in the school playground in cardiac arrest.

 Little Sean Kelly
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Little Sean KellyCredit: Garrett White - The Sun

The nine-year-old, who was given a two per cent chance of pulling through, only survived because a nearby GAA club had the device.

In an exclusive interview, the Kelly family this week spoke for the first time about Sean’s remarkable ­survival story.

The little battler and his relatives have backed the Irish Sun’s Show Some Heart campaign to get AEDs installed in every school in the country.

The Kelly family’s local fundraising drive has succeeded in installing the first town centre public defibrillator in their native Rush, north Co Dublin.

 Sean with his dad Stephen, mum Deirdre and sisters Aoibhe and Bronagh
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Sean with his dad Stephen, mum Deirdre and sisters Aoibhe and BronaghCredit: Garrett White - The Sun

Their ‘Rush Heart Safe’ campaign will see at least five more defibrillators, to be accessible 24/7, rolled out around the town.

Mum Deirdre told the Irish Sun: “With what happened to Sean we became acutely aware of the lack of Automated External Defibrillators.

“Since that we have decided to get some publicly accessible AEDs in the town of Rush. My husband Stephen spearheaded it. He just decided one day that he wanted to do something positive out of what had happened.

He set up a Facebook page ‘Rush Heart Safe’ and contacted Rush First Responders.”

 Sean's family have started a fundraising drive
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Sean's family have started a fundraising driveCredit: Garrett White - The Sun

Sean, who had no known underlying health problems and hadn’t even attended a GP, dropped to the ground during yard-time in Gaelscoil Ros Eo, Rush, on September 4.

Quick-thinking principal Tim O Tuachaigh performed CPR on the young lad as a defibrillator was rushed to the scene.

In a major stroke of luck, the device had been supplied to the GAA club next door to the school by a pizza company.

Medics say the boy is only alive because the AED was close to hand.

 You can support our campaign by signing the petition at the bottom of the page
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You can support our campaign by signing the petition at the bottom of the page

Sean’s family are speaking out to raise awareness of defibrillators and to join the Irish Sun’s Show Some Heart campaign to get AEDs installed in every school in the country.

In a direct appeal to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Education Minister Richard Bruton and Health Minister Simon Harris, Deirdre said: “This is the warning shot across the bow . . . make sure you do something about it.”

As they joined our crusade for the Government to provide defibs at schools, Sean’s family are “doing their bit” to improve cover in their local community.

Deirdre said: “We had a coffee morning, the schools had no uniform days and we raised over €10,000. The first of the AEDs went up and we’re hoping to get five around Rush. We just have to get locations for them.

“It is about getting some awareness out of this.

“Because this has happened to us, we wanted to do something positive.

“It is a life changing, but we’ve had a good outcome. It could have been life changing for a lot of other reasons. To be fair it was my husband who really felt he wanted to do something.

“We’ve had massive support in the community of Rush. So we just decided to try to get publicly accessible AEDs around Rush, to make people aware of the need to have them there and how to use them.”

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