You know the world is a strange place. On the 18th of February 2010, I stayed at the Galway Travelodge with my 5 children and my wife. He was booked to speak at the opening of Atlanticside collage at Bundorren in Co Donegal, Ireland next Saturday. So I decided to take the wife and kids for a few days. Since it is a trip of more than five hours, we decided to stop the trip in Galway because it is a nice city.

We arrived and went out to eat as usual, we went to a nice Italian restaurant so the kids could have pizza, we were all in high spirits. Return to the hotel around 10 pm. The older children had the room across the hall and we were in our room with the younger ones, the joy of traveling with 5 children. Anyway, I was pretty tired so I fell asleep while the kids watched TV. Around 12:30 I was woken up by screaming.

I assumed it was some teenagers messing around, but it happened again. It was a scream of terror, so I jumped out of bed. My oldest son called me on his mobile just as he opened the door and I told him I was going to take a look. To be honest I assumed it was a young couple arguing and worst case scenario I would have to slap some guy in the face to get back to sleep. I was not prepared at all for what I saw. My oldest son and I went up the hall to see what the hell was going on.

When we turned the corner of the corridor we saw a crowd of people. There was a lot of confusion, I asked a lady what was going on, she said ‘a young man collapsed on the ground, he has white foam at the mouth’. “So being me, I walked into the room and I saw a young woman with a towel and she was frantic. I saw a naked young man lying on the bathroom floor and the girl in the towel was screaming, ‘he hit his head, he hit his head.’ Next to the boy is a girl and she has him in the recovery position, there is someone else but I ask the girl in the bathroom what is going on. She says the young man was brushing his teeth and collapsed.

At this point and to my embarrassment I start to think, Ok, this guy has taken some drugs. He couldn’t have been further from the truth. So I go up to the towel girl and say ‘did you call an ambulance?’ She partially yelled ‘I don’t know, I don’t know’. So I went out into the crowd and asked them. They told me that he had been called. I go back to the bathroom, the girl is talking to the young guy’ saying ‘wake up Matt, wake up Matt’. I told him you have to get dressed so you can go in the ambulance. When she dressed as her I asked if there was anyone else with her, she said she had two friends at the hotel so I sent her and my son to fetch them.

I went back to the bathroom and upon entering I saw two toothbrushes on the floor. Then he checked in, the white stuff around his mouth was toothpaste. He literally collapsed while she was brushing her teeth. More or less at this point his two friends arrived, a boy named Nick, he told me that the boy’s name was Matt, he was 29 years old and they were going to put a new valve in his heart on March 16. My own heart sank at this point, there was confusion everywhere. His girlfriend was on her knees talking to Matt, saying ‘come on matt wake up, come on matt wake up. His other friend was talking to a doctor on the phone and told us not to do anything. One of the ladies outside picked up the phone and yelled ‘just send the ambulance now’

So I went downstairs to talk to the doorman to see what the update was on the ambulance coming, because I had just checked Matt’s pulse, it was racing, but very weak. The doorman said he didn’t know, so I dialed 999 myself. I explained to the girl on the line what was going on, she connected me with the ambulance service and I told the women to ‘look, this guy don’t going to make it’, I gave her the info on Matt and she told me a doctor was on the way.

I ran upstairs, on the way, another girl said she knew CPR, so I said common. They still have Matt in recovery position, so I went back to check his pulse, nothing. Jesus, I said we need to help him now! so her friend told the doctor over the phone what was happening at the time. The doctor instructed us to breathe into her mouth, two breaths, and pump her heart 30 times. To his credit, the two girls got to work right away. Two breaths, 30 pumps and again. The girl who was pumping his chest and who had been with him since before I arrived was very tired and emotionally exhausted, so I said look, let me take control. This was now about 15 minutes after I first entered the room. So we continue 2 breaths, 30 pumps and so on. How long we were there, I don’t know. Matt’s girlfriend and friends rotated talking to him, I talked to him saying things ‘come on Matt, wake up, your girlfriend is fine with you kissing other girls’.

We kept going and finally in what seemed like an eternity a doctor arrived. He asked me how long it’s been like this, I told him about 20 minutes, if not more. He asked to clear the room, I did. His friends are crying and trying to be optimistic, ‘he will be fine’. He hoped they were right, but he didn’t think so. While we were helping him he had no pulse. Then the ambulance team arrives. I’m a porter, I let the ambulance people do their job. The hotel manager arrives a young girl, I think Polish. She is lost. I ask him to bring everyone a few drinks. She will keep people busy. I remember when my own sister died, she was 30 and she died of cancer, the main thing I felt was that I was worthless, so keep people as busy as possible. It’s amazing how stupid little things can distract your mind.

I ask Nick his name and why they were in the UK. He tells me that they had gotten married and explains that Nick had been very careful about his lifestyle because of his upcoming operation. He tells me how they planned to go skiing after Nick recovered from the operation. I can see from his girlfriend and his friends that Matt is deeply loved. One of the ambulance crew asks me if I’m with Matt, I told him that I was just a guest at the hotel, I explained who was with him and that they were outside by the stairs. At this stage I realize for the first time that my 16-year-old son has been there the whole time. I asked him to come back to the room and he told me that he would stay. I was so proud of my young man that night and thought of Matt’s poor parents. He had told his girlfriend not to call them until she knew something, he was thinking Christ, he hoped he had made the right decision. There’s nothing they can do now, it’s 1:30 in the morning. Besides, she (I never got the poor girl’s name) is in no condition to do anything.

The front door is partially open as it is stuck on the bathroom door to keep it open. What I hear from people trying to save Matt is not good. They work for 20 minutes, no response. Now there’s a problem: they can’t get him up on a stretcher, so they decided to wrap him in a sheet and we’ll take him down the stairs. Nowadays we allow things to be built where you can’t get a stretcher, stupid is the only word. The ambulance lady asked me to take Matt’s girlfriend and friends to a room so they wouldn’t see that he had been moved. The girl who was the first to appear on the scene, I ask her and her boyfriend to take them to her room. I have to say that I have met some incredibly strong people in my life, but the two young women I was in the bathroom with that night were incredible. I really respect the courage, care and love you showed that night. Actually, the girl who was in the room when I arrived was so sweet that I thought she was Matt’s friend, only later did I find out that she had just reacted like me.

As soon as Matt’s girlfriend and friends entered the room, we carefully lowered Matt down the stairs. They put him in the ambulance, I asked if his girlfriend could go with them, they told me better not. So I asked the manager to drop them off at the hospital. Matt’s girlfriend got out first, so I told her she’d go to the manager and take them to the car. Then I pulled Nick aside and told him that the doctor had told me it was a one in a million chance that Matt would survive, I think to be fair, the non-emergency doctor was called by one of the guests. of the hotel. He didn’t want to be the one to say that Matt had died. Everyone left. (It wouldn’t be until we met the manager on our way out that our worst fears were set in. The manager told us that the people at the hospital said there was nothing anyone could have done to save Matt that night.)

I spoke briefly with some of the people, told the two girls that they were amazing, and returned with my oldest daughter to my wife and the rest of my children. I told them it didn’t look good and went to the bathroom and cried. I couldn’t understand it, I’m a rational man. I had never met Matt, never had a conversation or a pint with him, but I felt like someone in my family had passed away.

I still don’t get it, but I feel the loss and so does my son. I must be honest, I didn’t know whether to write this or not, but as a father, God forbid, if it were one of my own, I would like to know what happened and if my son left this world. he loved them. That is the reason why I write this. Although most people like me never met Matt, he was prayed for, cared for and cared for in the most loving way I have ever witnessed. In this current world where we hear that people don’t care anymore, that was not what I witnessed that night.

There was more love in that bathroom than I have ever seen. Every single person there wanted Matt to get ahead, talked to him, fought to stay alive, and was really sad when he passed away. To the point where most didn’t give up at all. We did everything we could to keep him alive and I deeply regret that we couldn’t.
So how am I supposed to feel? Logic says that I saw a stranger depart from this world. My spirit tells me that I lost a friend. A man whose life was short lived but was loved by people he knew and some people he never knew. What an amazing person he must have been.

To his girlfriend, friends and family, you have the thoughts, love and care of everyone who was at the Travelodge in Galway that night.

Matt, you may be deceased, but you will not be forgotten.

rest in peace matt