Grandmother praises young children who used life-saving CPR when she collapsed

Four year old Nathan and his friend Katelyn (6) were with his granny Ursula Doran O’Reilly (58) when she had a seizure and began to faint.

Luckily, just days before Ursula’s health scare, Katelyn’s dad had shown her how to do CPR.
“They’re brilliant children,” she said.

“Because of Katelyn’s instructions from her Dad on how to do CPR and save lives – basic first aid – they looked after me so well. I was unconscious and don’t have any recollection of it – it could have been about 40 minutes.”

“She took control, organised how to do it, lay me down, turned me on my side, kept me warm. The only thing she couldn’t do is the mouth-to-mouth because I had bitten my tongue during the seizure and was covered in blood.”

“She turned me on my side, she taught Nathan how to do compressions,” she told

“I’m used to health issues but for him it was a calming experience because of Katelyn. Had she not been taught by her father, she probably wouldn’t have known what to do.”

“The fact that Katelyn’s father had gone through all that with her. She took control and looked after me and Nathan and then went for help.”

“Nathan told his mother: ‘I was a little bit brave and a little bit sad for my nanny’.”

“Wouldn’t it be amazing to teach first aid in primary school?”

Originally reported in the Irish Independent.