A West Belfast health worker has been hailed a hero by her work colleagues after saving her client's life.
Rebecca Murphy, 28, is part of Connected Health team who provide domiciliary healthcare services for people living at home in the community.
Last week on entering the home of her client in Finaghy, Rebecca found the woman unresponsive and finding it very hard to catch a breath.
Rebecca’s instinct was to use the first aid training that Connected Health had taught her until the ambulance arrived. The paramedics have stated that if Rebecca had been even five minutes later, the woman would not be here today. Rebecca is the only person that calls to the woman as she has no family.
Rebecca has described how she went into the house, and found her client.
“Basically, when I walked in, I saw that the client was unresponsive and couldn’t really breathe, and I knew I had to act immediately," she said.
"I immediately phoned emergency services and followed my own training and the advice they were giving me on the call. By the time they had arrived at the house she had thankfully started to come round a little bit.”
In the immediacy of the moment, Rebecca said she was “in shock I suppose".
"But the adrenaline took over and I knew what had to be done. I am so happy she’s okay.”
Rebecca added: “This experience has given me a lot of confidence in my work and my hopes to be a nurse. It was my duty to care for the woman, so that’s all I did.”
