A MEMBER of Tralee Community Responders put his skills to good use last week when he came to the aid of a teenager hit by a motorbike in Tanzania last week.

Jimmy Murphy and his wife Maureen are over in the African country where they visited the Tír na nÓg Orphanage, run by Tralee woman Louise Quill.

Maureen is heavily involved in the upkeep and fundraising for the orphanage and they were spending five days there.

Louise contacted us to tell us what happened last week. She takes up the story below…

“After returning home from town last week with some of the children, one of our 14 year old girls was struck by a drunk driver on a motorcycle, who then sped off. Jimmy, who is a member of the Tralee Community Responders, acted in a heroic and selfless manner coming immediately to the child’s aid.

Continued below…

“He put her into the recovery position and waited as a passing neighbourhood friend helped the child into the back of his car and rushed her to hospital. However as it was late in the evening there were no doctors available in the hospital and the child was returned home to us, much to our horror.

She had sustained serious facial injuries, had lost two teeth and her arms, elbows and ankles were destroyed with open wounds.

Jimmy rushed off to the pharmacy to organise a first aid bag and proceeded to bandage and clean the wounds.

He did this for the next few days until she had recovered. I really don’t know what we would have done if Jimmy wasn’t on hand that day, especially since the child was turned away from the hospital.

It was very traumatic for all the children and staff members to witness this child in such pain. I would like to extend my sincerest gratitude to Jimmy Murphy and thank him for all his help.”

Fantastic work Jimmy. To find out more about Tír na nÓg Orphanage see their Facebook page here. For more on Tralee Community Responders, click here.