‘I thought it was the end’

LUCKY TO BE ALIVE Frank Leneghan, pictured being interviewed by The Mayo News in 2019, said he thought he was going to die after his quad bike overturned in remote Ballycroy last Wednesday.  Pic: Michael McLaughlin

Former councillor recovering from horrific near-death experience

Exclusive
Edwin McGreal

Former Mayo county councillor Frank Leneghan thought he was going to die after his quad bike overturned and trapped him in remote mountain terrain in his native Ballycroy last Wednesday.
In a freak accident, the handlebar of the quad bike pierced Leneghan’s right leg just above his knee. He lay injured, on his own, for nearly two hours before anyone discovered him.
“When I saw the handlebar stuck in my leg and saw the blood, I thought it was the end to be quite honest,” Frank Leneghan told The Mayo News from his hospital bed yesterday (Monday).
“I was in tremendous pain, but my biggest fear was the bike would go on fire. It was a hot evening, and I could feel the petrol leaking and burning my leg,” he revealed.
During the fall, which happened around 8pm, his phone had fallen out of his pocket. It lay agonisingly out of reach for Leneghan, who had been checking on sheep on family land.
He would eventually reach it, but it was two Fisheries Officers who came to his aid. Tommy Ginnelly and Alan Cusack had happened to be patrolling the general area when they found him.
“It was a welcome sight to see them! I’d say I could have bled to death but for them. They would have probably seen the light on the bike.
“They were brilliant. I’m convinced they saved my life. I was getting very weak and I’d lost a lot of blood. They have a lot of experience, no doubt, of first aid. I thought when they came they’d lift the bike and that would help but no way would they do it. It was lucky they didn’t because they could have done more damage. I knew when they arrived too that at least they might be able to do something if the petrol lit up.”

Helicopter refuel
Because Leneghan was trapped in such a remote location, the Fisheries Officers contacted the Irish Coast Guard who tasked a helicopter to Ballycroy to aid with the rescue. But so remote was the location and so hard to find was the exact spot – four miles north east from Ballycroy village deep in the National Park area – that they had to go and refuel before returning to the mountain side.
In the meantime, fire officers from Achill Fire Brigade, Mayo Mountain Rescue volunteers and a hoard of locals were on the scene to help too. It would be almost 2am – six hours after he overturned – before Leneghan was in the helicopter.
The fire crew cut Leneghan from the bike, but the part of the handlebar that had pierced his leg remained inside him for the journey by helicopter to Galway University Hospital. There were fears he might lose his leg.
“It was a big, thick handle, and people are amazed that it could go through your leg but it did. I had surgery on Thursday, and I’m hopeful of a full recovery. The surgeon told me the handlebar just missed my main artery going down my leg and if it penetrated that, I’d have been dead in minutes,” he said.

Frightening
“I have a quad over 20 years. I’d be awful careful. It all happened in a split second. It was a frightening experience,” said Leneghan, who is hoping to be released from Galway University Hospital in the coming week.
Leneghan is a member of the Outdoor Staff with Mayo County Council, and in an ironic twist he had spent hours on Wednesday morning directing traffic away from the scene of a fatal accident between Newport and Mulranny. He did not expect to need the emergency services himself later that same day on a remote mountain side.
“I couldn’t say enough for all of those who helped me. They were tremendous. Even when it came to bringing me to the helicopter, they had to bring me 200 metres on rough terrain to the place where the helicopter could land, and they did that so well,” he said.
Frank Leneghan was a Fianna FΡil county councillor from 1999 to 2004, when he famously defeated Michael Holmes by a fraction of a vote to eventually take the seat, after recounts.
He’s a native of Tarsaghaun, Ballycroy and lives in Bangor.