Tourists and locals watched in awe and applauded emergency crews as a young woman was airlifted to hospital from the middle of a Clare town this afternoon.
The woman in her 20’s is understood to have collapsed in cardiac arrest while visiting a local business at around 12.30pm.
A local doctor rushed to the scene when the alarm was raised while an ambulance from Galway and advanced paramedic unit from Ennis were sent to the incident.
The Emergency Aeromedical Service (EAS) air ambulance, operated by the Air Corps on behalf of the HSE, was requested to airlift the woman to hospital.
While the GP and paramedics treated the woman the helicopter landed in a small field behind a local supermarket and just 25 metres from the scene.
The woman was stretchered across the road to the waiting helicopter as holidaymakers and visitors applauded the emergency services.
One American visitor said: “It was out of this world. We had just stopped here on our tour bus when we saw all the drama. It was like a scene from MASH. There were ambulances and then a helicopter circled overhead before landing in a field. The downwash from the helicopter actually rocked our bus.”
“They pushed a stretcher across the street and put it in the helicopter. I hope whoever it was is ok but it looked like they had every possible chance with the response that was here,” he added.
The woman was airlifted the short distance across Galway Bay to University Hospital Galway.