Father of hotel-fall boy thanks ‘miracle’ workers who saved him

The father of a two-year-old boy who is in intensive care after falling from the sixth floor of a hotel in Limerick has thanked the "miracle" workers who saved his son's life.

Neil Shanahan, from Farranshone in Limerick city, suffered multiple injuries after falling 20m from a balcony on the top of the Strand Hotel in Limerick at lunchtime last Saturday.

Speaking at a prayer service in St Munchin's church, where his son was Christened two years ago, Michael Shanahan thanked all those who have treated his son who "was almost taken from us" last Saturday.

The father-of-three received a round of applause from several hundred people who gathered in his local church to pray for his son.

“Martina and I have been blessed with the birth of three fabulous children, one of whom, Neil, as you all know, was almost taken from us on Saturday last in a fall.

“While we were not counting our blessings immediately after discovering what happened to Neil, we have ever since been counting many, many blessings,” he said.

‘Incredible care’

“Firstly, let me give you an update on Neil - thanks to the incredible care and skill of so many, he is in a stable condition in ICU at Temple Street.

“It is still very early days yet, but he is responding as well to treatment as could be expected in the circumstances of falling the height that he fell,” he added.

The Shanahan family had been attending a parish coffee morning organised by the Farranshone Residents’ Association in the Strand Hotel in Limerick last Saturday when Neil, the second youngest of three children, wandered off shortly before 1pm.

The community gathering was held on the ground floor of the hotel.

Got into lift

The two-year-old made his way into a lift and made it to the sixth floor of the hotel, where he climbed out onto a balcony and fell.

It’s understood Neil’s fall was broken by a table on an outside seated terrace area. He was initially cared for at the scene by a nurse who happened to be nearby. An ambulance then took him to University Hospital Limerick.

“We were blessed first of all by the presence of the first responder, an American nurse whom I won’t name now but who happened to be there at the time, for her intervention and care,” Mr Shanahan told those in the church.

“We are indebted particularly to the frontline emergency responders at the University Hospital here in Limerick and all at the emergency department, the doctors and nurses, at the hospital for their incredible work as his life hung in the balance.”