The girlfriend of the Buncrana Pier tragedy hero Davitt Walsh has told reporters that said feared that four-month-old Rionaghac-Ann was already dead as she took the rescued baby into her arms.
An emotional Stephanie Knox told reporters that she thought that little Rionaghac-Ann was not breathing when her heroic boyfriend Davitt handed her over but knew she was alive the moment she heard the baby miraculous coughed within seconds of holding her.
Ms Knox, a cardiographer at Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry spoke of how she will never forget the awful tragedy and how her training in cardiac physiology heled to save the baby’s life. Ms Knox said she also feared for her heroic boyfriends life as he swam out towards the sinking Audi Q7.
The quick thinking and heroic Stephanie said: “It was very traumatic and difficult to stand on the pier and to watch what was unfolding in front of me. “I saw Davitt swimming out to get the baby. I was afraid for his life as well as for the lives of the people in the car. “When I saw the car sinking I was afraid that Davitt would dive under the water to try to help the people in the car.
“I shouted at him ‘Davitt come back, Davitt come back’. I could see he was struggling and that he was tiring fast as he held the baby really high up in the air. “Just before the car sank there was no noise, no screams, you could hear a pin drop on the pier.
“I went down the slipway and Davitt handed the baby over to me. “I went off the slipway and went into the water up to my waist. I didn’t want to go into the water any further in case no-one would get out of the water.
The cardiographer further explained: “I then crawled up the slipway with the baby in my arms. She was not crying and I thought that she was dead. “I thought I was going to have to do CPR on the baby and then I heard the smallest of coughs coming from the baby.
“It was the smallest faintest cough I have ever heard and I will never forget it.”That was the moment when I realised Davitt had done so well. “I fell on the slipway but I held the baby tight to me. A man then took the baby off me. When I climbed on to the pier from the slipway I got the baby back off the man and rushed to Davitt’s car because I knew if I did not get the baby warm she could die of hypothermia or go into a cardiac arrest and that all of Davitt’s work would have been for nothing.
“I took the wet clothes off the baby and wrapped her in my coat and rocked her and tried to comfort her before an ambulance paramedic took her from my arms.”
Meanwhile the funeral services for the other five victims of the heartbreaking tragedy will take place tomorrow afternoon at 2pm.