'Only God knows': Don brings a wealth of understanding to his nursing job in Dublin

Having risked his life to help save others during Libya’s civil wars, Filipino nurse Don Cachin now enjoys a quieter life as a cardiac arrhythmia nurse at the Beacon Hospital in Sandyford

41-year-old Don Cachin with a patient at the Beacon Hospital in Sandyford, Dublin, where he works as a cardiac nurse. He told Sarah Horgan of his time working as an emergency nurse in Libya between 2011 and 2014. Picture: Moya Nolan

Dodging gunshots fired by patients in the emergency department wasn’t exactly what Don Cachin had envisioned while studying to become a nurse at university.

Fortunately, the 41-year-old now enjoys a much quieter life as a cardiac arrhythmia nurse at the Beacon Hospital in Sandyford, Dublin, having risked his own life to help save countless others during Libya’s civil wars of the 2010s.