'I didn’t hesitate': German student, 18, helped victim of fatal sword attack in Cobh

Arian Hanitzsch, an exchange student from Germany, who helped render emergency first aid to the victim of last Friday's fatal sword attack in Cobh.

A teenage first responder who helped the victim of last Friday’s fatal sword attack in Cork says his thoughts and prayers are with the young man's family.

Arian Hanitzsch, 18, an exchange student from Dresden, Germany, who is staying with a host family in Cobh, used his first aid training to help Ian Baitson, 32, who suffered horrific injuries when he was attacked by a man armed with a suspected Samurai sword in the car park of a shop on the town’s Newtown Road just before 9pm.

Mr Baitson was bleeding profusely from a catastrophic leg injury and was losing blood.

Arian, a volunteer firefighter in Dresden who has trained with the Irish Red Cross, told the Irish Examiner how he heard calls for help and shouts of “there is a man down”.

“I didn’t hesitate. I moved instinctively to the guy, to help him,” he said.

He worked on Mr Baitson with a local first responder, and together, they used a belt as a tourniquet and administered CPR while they waited for an emergency rapid response doctor and HSE paramedics to arrive.

“We stopped the bleeding at first, then controlled his reactions, and how he was breathing,” he said.

“I coordinated the first aid. We worked well together, we worked as a team.” 

When the other medics arrived, they managed to stabilise Mr Baitson’s condition and he was rushed by ambulance in critical condition to Cork University Hospital where despite emergency surgery, he died on Tuesday.

Ian Baitson

Arian said: “It’s been like a nightmare since. I can’t really sleep but my thoughts and prayers are with Ian and his family.

“What I went through was horrible, but what they are going through is much worse.

“I have talked to my family at home, and they know what happened. They are also in shock and they have told me to mind myself.” 

He said he felt it was important to use his first aid skills to try to help.

“You shouldn’t walk away because someday, this could be you in need of help. And I believe that karma comes back,” he said.

I would like to move on now, and focus on school work, and normality.

“But I would encourage people to get first aid training, starting early in primary school and then moving on in secondary school. Kids, young adults — everyone should be trained in basic first aid.

“Employers should do training like this too because it’s for the benefit of the community.” 

Arian is spending a year as a student of Coláiste Éamann Rís in Cork City, where he is studying for the Leaving Cert, and sitting oral exams next week.

School principal Aaron Wolfe, said the school and the Irish Red Cross are providing him with supports after the trauma of last Friday. He said Arian is a credit to his family.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the victim and his family,” Mr Wolfe said.

“But we are very proud of Arian and are so lucky to have him in our school.

“It shows the benefits of student exchanges, and I think we could learn a lot from what Germany is doing in terms of first aid training.”

The Garda investigation into last Friday's assault is ongoing, with gardaí mounting a series of searches and raids of various addresses in Cobh in recent days.

An autopsy examination is due to be carried out on Mr Baitson's body at CUH on Wednesday. The findings will determine the course of the Garda investigation.