Mother devastated as toddler chokes to death
Nurse Orla O’Sullivan fought desperately to save her 18-month-old son Cathal after the food became lodged in his throat during breakfast at the Hotel Kilkenny on Sunday morning.
But despite her frantic efforts, and assistance from hotel staff trained in first aid, they were unable to dislodge the blockage.
An ambulance was on the scene within seven minutes and Cathal was rushed to St Luke’s Hospital where he was pronounced dead just after 10am.
Little Cathal, from Charleville in north Cork, was enjoying a break at the four-star hotel with his parents Orla and Eamonn, his twin brother Fionn, and his older brother and sister, Eamonn Og and Tara, when tragedy struck.
It is understood the family won the hotel stay on an RTE radio show competition and were joined by relations for the weekend. Family members were gathered around the breakfast table in the hotel’s dining room just before 10am when Eamonn, a son of retired Charleville veterinary surgeon, Eamon, took Fionn up to their room to change his nappy.
Orla, a nurse at Dr Tom Molloy’s surgery in Charleville, reacted immediately when Cathal began to choke violently on a sausage. Hotel staff also battled to revive Cathal as shocked hotel guests looked on helpless. Cathal was rushed to hospital but he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Gardaí were notified but are treating the incident as a private tragedy.
Michael Griffin, a director of the Griffin Group, which owns the hotel, declined to comment last night on the details of the incident out of respect for the family. But he described the accident as a terrible tragedy.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family at this time,” he said.
Cathal will be buried following Mass of the Angels in St Mary’s Church in Ballyhea, at 3pm today.
The family has asked for donations to be made, if people would like, to children’s charities through O’Malley’s Funeral Directors in Charleville.
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