'When I saw the priest, and Dominique crying, I did think I was going to die'

It was a day in August 2016 and it started for Damien Loran like so many others had done before. He took out his boots, hurling stick and helmet and set out from his home in Ballivor. His destination was Kildalkey where he was due to play a game.

His team, Trim were taking on Killyon in a SHC fixture. It was an eagerly-awaited contest and Loran, then 33, was “pumped up†ready for action.

He put on his playing gear, the scarlet red jersey of Trim, and did his warm up as usual little knowing that in the following few hours he would go perilously close to losing his life.

From Milltownpass in Co Westmeath, Damien Loran played hurling and football at senior level for his native county. He was, as he says himself, “bred into the GAA.†He had settled in Ballivor - with his partner Dominique Harris, a hairdresser - via a spell in Trim. 

They have two children and last August the youngsters were aged two and three. Two months previously Dominique and Damien were granted a mortgage to buy a house in Ballivor. Life was good, if busy.
Damien's job involved a lot of travelling. He was employed by a scaffolding company that went around to the golf courses of Europe constructing, among other things, camera towers for Sky Sports. It became a familiar sight to see superstars like Rory McIlroy up close. 

When not on the golf circuit Damien and his workmates were gainfully employed constructing concert stages for the likes of Bruce Springsteen or Ed Sheeran - or for the annual rock extravaganza in Slane. His job was demanding but there were perks.

“We would often have seen Bruce practice his songs a day before the concert, there would be just a few of us there, it was great. We might be putting the finishing touches to the stage and he and his band would be playing away. We put up stages in Croke Park, Nowlan Park places like that.â€Â 

Every chance he got Damien turned out for Trim and that game last August was one contest he was eager to be involved in. He was ready for the start.
The ball was thrown in and the action got underway. Then “six or seven minutes†into the match it happened. As he went for a ball Damien collided with an opponent out near the sideline and they both fell to the ground in a tumbling mess of arms and legs. There was nothing dirty about the encounter; nothing malicious, merely the normal rough-and-tumble stuff seen in such contests.
Damien shipped a blow to his lower back but the adrenaline was flowing. He felt nothing sinister except that sensation of being “winded.†He continued on, caught up in the hurly-burly of battle: “Other than that I felt 100 per cent,†he recalls.
The match ebbed and flowed. Then the half-time whistle sounded and as he made his way to the dressingroom Damien noticed his shorts were blood stained. That was the start of it; the first indication something was wrong; seriously wrong. Other indications quickly followed. 

“As soon as I sat down in the dressing room and relaxed the pain started, it was unbelievable,†he recalls. He was driven to Navan Hospital where more drama unfolded. After he was examined by the medics the decision was quickly taken that Damien would have to be transferred to the Mater in Dublin. He had sliced his kidney and severed a ureter, a tube that connects the kidney to the bladder.

“I was in Navan for maybe an hour or so, they were trying to figure out where all the blood was coming from. I felt like going to the toilet but all I was passing was pure blood. After a few scans they realised it was too severe and they didn't have the equipment to treat an injury like that so I was rushed up to the Mater.â€

Moving in and out of consciousness due to a loss of blood the first inkling Damien got that his was a very serious injury was in Navan when a priest stood over him saying prayers.
“When I saw the priest and Dominique and a friend standing there crying I began to say to myself: ‘What's going on here?' No-one could give me an answer at that stage, everyone was running around, making phone calls, ring this, ring that.â€

Boosted by injections of morphine Damien arrived at the Mater - then blacked out again. He recalls waking up some time later and getting another sign of just how serious his condition was. “I was losing consciousness because my blood levels were so low. I had to get seven blood tranfusions in the space of three days.

“I did think I was going to die. When I woke in the Mater I had about three machines either side of me, wires hooked into my chest. I had four drips, one was feeding me blood, another morphine, I was also on a lot of medicine to fight off infection.â€

Nobody was allowed in to see him except Dominique and his parents, he couldn't even see his two children and that he found difficult, deeply emotional, but eventually he started to recover. He was eventually told by the medics he had gone within “an hour†of losing his life.

Not only did Damien spend the next four months or so recuperating he also had to give up his job. “No lifting,†the doctors told him. Constructing TV towers and stages was out. The transition from someone who often worked 60, 70 hours a week to doing nothing was a huge wrench.

“I would feel very down because you're the one who's bringing the stuff into the house. You could do none of that anymore, I couldn't even carry my kids for the first two-and-a-half or three months in case I would rupture my kidney. I wasn't able to do anything. Even bending down I had to be very careful.â€Â 

He praises the support his family received from Trim GAA club. “They did look after me because it took a bit of time for the insurance to come through, they never brushed me aside, they were always in contact with me. Friends and neighbours were also brilliant helping us.â€
Eager to get back to work he landed a job as a lorry driver and while he doesn't brush shoulders these day with rock stars and famous sports people on a regular basis he's happy to be back working. Towards the end of last year Dominique fell and broke her wrist. It completed an annus horribilis for the couple. “We were glad to see the back of the year I can tell you, the house was like an A&E department for a while,†he adds.

Now a year down the line Damien Loran has carved out a new career for himself behind the wheel as a lorry driver. He's just happy to be alive. One of the positive aspects of his great escape is that he can spend a lot more time at home now than he once did. Now he appreciates every day; every minute with loved ones.

DAMAIEN LORAN ON.....

HIS LOVE OF HURLING

'What happened to me was a real wake up call but because I love sport I would pick up a hurling in the morning and play but I just couldn't put my family through that again, what they went through but yeah, If I was single, or had no kids to look after, or no mortgage, I'd probably be back playing this year.

ON FINDING HIMSELF BED BOUND

'It was heartbreaking talking to my children on the phone from the Mater hospital, I couldn't see them. You would get emotional lying there, unable to do anything. I was bed bound up there for about eight days, I was being washed and everything in the bed, hardly able to move with all the machines attached to me.

HOW HIS LIFE HAS CHANGED FOR THE BETTER

'I used to travel all over Europe as a scaffolder doing a lot of work for Sky on the PGA tour but you'd be working hard and before you knew it the summer was gone. Now I'm in a job Monday to Friday and there's a lot to be said for it because I have time to spend with the kids and my partner. From a family perspective what happened to me changed things for the better.'