Brave local teenagers praised after saving man's life in river rescue
by Caoimhe Hegarty
Two County Derry teenagers have been hailed as heroes after their fast thinking and brave actions helped to save a man’s life.
19 year-old Matthew Doyle from Draperstown and Joseph Spiers (18) from Knockloughrim, were fishing the Mourne River at Sion Mills when the man entered the river at a spot known locally as Paddy’s Stream at around 1pm last Sunday.
Speaking to the County Derry Post, the two young men, who are both members of Moyola Angling Association, recalled the horrifying moment that they both realised what was happening.
“We were both fishing out in the water when I seen a man running down the river bank. My first instinct was that someone had dived into the river. For a split second, I waited to see what was going on, just to see if he would start swimming but then we realised what was happening,” said Matthew.
“We started to make out way down the river to him but with all our fishing gear, it took us a couple of minutes before we reached him,” explained Matthew, a marketing student at the Ulster University.
Miraculously, both Matthew and Joseph reached the man, who was unconscious and managed to pull him from the water.
“We were able to turn him on to his side but it took us a few minutes before we managed to get him over to the bank. When we got him out, we thought it was too late.
“It all happened so quickly but Matthew was very quick to ring 999,” said Joseph.
However as the battery in Matthew’s mobile phone was flat, Matthew had to leave Joseph alone with the man to run to get Joseph’s mobile from his jacket.
“It was just instinct that kicked in,” explained Matthew. “While on the phone to the emergency services, I met a fisherman coming down the car park. He was able to tell me exactly where we were.”
Taking up the story, Joseph, a garden landscaper, added: “I stayed at the river and after a few minutes, the man came around. He spoke about how much of a hard time he was having but I reassured him that we would get him the help he needed.
“It was only after the ambulance had left that we realised what had happened. It was the most frightening thing that has ever happened to us but at the same time, we didn’t expect to hear anything else about. To us, it wasn’t a big deal.
Matthew added: “We don’t think that we are heroes at all, we just did what we felt we had to do. In the moment, it was either flight or fight.”
The boys believe that had they been a few minutes later, the man would not have survived.
“We could have been telling a very different story. If he had have been in the water a minute longer, I don’t think he would have survived. As frightening as it was, if I was ever faced with a similar situation, I would have no hesitation in doing again,” said Joseph.
“It is also very lucky that he was swept away with the strong undercurrent. If he had been even a couple of feet further out, we wouldn’t have been able to reach him. The funny thing is we weren’t even going to go fishing on Sunday but we decided at the last minute to go and we are so glad we did. Things could have been very different,” said Mattthew.
Matthew has since been contacted by one of the paramedics who attended to the scene.
“One of the paramedics who arrived to the scene sent me a message over Facebook to say that the man has made a full recovery and is getting the help that he needs, which is great news.”