There were dramatic scenes before this evening's Westmeath IFC semi-final in Cusack Park when Athlone substitute Cathal Joyce collapsed on the pitch.

It's believed the youngster's heart stopped for several seconds before he was resuscitated by medics who used a defibrillator. Cathal was taken to hospital where he is recovering after his near-death experience.

One of the first to come to Cathal's aid was his brother and Athlone team physio James Joyce.

"Cathal collapsed in the warm-up after suffering a cardiac arrest," Athlone PRO Brian Melinn told hoganstand.com

"There's a good chance he would not have survived but for the quick thinking and swift action of Dr Patrick Boland, who was a sub on the Rosemount team, and one of our subs, Colm O'Leary, who's a Garda trained in CPR. The club is extremely grateful for their assistance."

The Athlone team later made a Lazarus-like recovery themselves to reach the IFC final. Trailing by 0-2 to 2-5 at half-time, they scored an unanswered 1-8 in the second half to win by 1-10 to 2-5, with the winning goal coming from an injury-time penalty scored by county star John Connellan.

"It was some comeback from the lads, but what happened to Cathal beforehand really puts things into perspective," Brian added.

Special mention to the medics in Cusack Park today. Saved the life of one of our players.. Defibrillators need to be at every pitch.#Thanks

- John Egan (@JohnEgan1111) September 13, 2015

 

We also got great help from the staff of @MilltownCLG so we are extremely grateful to them. https://t.co/NTnF2QNkyr

- Athlone GAA (@AthloneGAA) September 13, 2015

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