Young doctor who fell to death left Thailand before tsunami hit

A NORTHERN Ireland man who plunged to his death while climbing a mountain in New Zealand had told his family how lucky he was to have escaped the Asian tsunami, it emerged last night.

Dr Dónal Deery, aged 29, a senior house officer from Belfast, had been in Thailand two weeks before the Indian Ocean earthquake struck on St Stephen’s Day.

His distraught father Francis revealed he discussed his good fortune in his final phone call home.

“When he spoke to us a week and a half ago, most of the conversation was about how lucky he had been to get away from the tsunami in Thailand.

“I warned him to look after himself. I never ever thought this would happen. It’s my worst nightmare,” he said.

Mr Deery said his son had been planning to return home in three weeks’ time to attend his sister Deirdre’s wedding.

“The wedding is going ahead in five weeks. Deirdre wants to cancel it but we don’t think it would be right,” he said.

Dr Deery, an experienced climber, fell 200 metres to his death while he and girlfriend, Helen McClements from Bangor, Co Down, were descending from a slope on the South Island’s Southern Alps near the town of Wanaka.

Ms McClements, 25, suffered internal injuries and fractures to her back and is in a stable condition in hospital in Dunedin.

Because of the treacherous weather conditions it could be another three to four days before search and rescue teams recover the body.

Police in Wanaka said Dr Deery died saving his girlfriend who had slipped on soft snow.

Speaking from his home in the Ligoniel area of north Belfast, Mr Deery said he would not be surprised if this is what had happened.

“It is something he would do. He just wouldn’t have thought anything for his own life. His first thought would always be for somebody else.”

The 59-year-old contractor added that he, his wife Monica, 57, and their daughters Loretta, 33, and Deirdre, 32, were devastated by his death.

“It came as an awful shock. We still can’t take it in. Ask anybody about Dónal, there couldn’t have been anybody nicer.

“He had such a great future ahead of him. All he ever wanted to do was to be a doctor and care for people,” his father said.

Dr Deery, who graduated from Queen’s University in 2000, was former president of its mountaineering club. His partner Helen, an English graduate, was also a member.

Dr Deery was planning to return to New Zealand after his sister’s wedding to work there for at least a year.