Last day on the Galway lifeboat
Last weekend marked the final day on lifeboat duty for Olivia Byrne – a volunteer member of the crew based at the Galway Lifeboat Station for the past 23 years.
The midwife and public health nurse has been on 167 shouts and has been involved in many rescues including passengers on cruise ships.
She has dealt with injuries that incorporated everything from fractured hips to cardiac arrests, while also dealing with those cases in which people have lost their lives through drowning.
In addition, Olivia’s nursing background has allowed her use these skills to the benefit of all the crew by leading out on casualty care exercises at the station.
Olivia also initiated the ongoing engagement with the College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at the University of Galway.
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This has enabled the crew to visit the Clinical Simulation and Interprofessional Education Facility over the years to put their casualty care training into practice in real time.
“Thinking back over the hundreds of hours I’ve spent at sea on rescues, it is the people that I remember; all those people who we saved and the families whose loved ones we brought home,” she said.
“It has been a privilege for me to be part of Galway RNLI and to serve on the boat with the crews over the past 23 years,” she added.
"I would especially like to thank Paul Carey, Mike Swan and Pat Lavelle, the Lifeboat Operations Managers who were all pivotal in my lifeboat journey,” she concluded.