A young girl has died after collapsing while playing a GAA match in Wexford.
The teenager, aged 16, was playing a match for Taghmon Camross GAA Club in the Minor Division 6 Ladies Football Shield Final, when she suddenly collapsed on the pitch.
According to reports in local media outlet, the Wexford People, eyewitnesses said there was a clash of heads between two other players, which caught the attention of people on the sidelines, prior to the young girl collapsing at the other end of the pitch.
“They started chest compressions on her,” one eye witness said. “I’ll never forget it".
Medical assistance was called immediately, as people ran onto the pitch to help her, and chest compressions were performed on the girl for several minutes.
An advanced paramedic then arrived on scene, with an ambulance following suite five minutes later. A defibrillator was used several times on the teenager, before she was lifted onto the back of an ambulance, and taken to hospital, where she sadly passed away.
The young girl's understandably distraught team mates were taken to the dressing rooms and had stayed back at the club as they anxiously waited for an update, with their coaches having to subsequently deliver the devastating news of her death.
Reports have said that the young girl had an underlying medical condition they were unaware of, with the coaches describing her as "a really talented girl". (All quotes according to the Wexford People).
Taghmon Camross GAA Club and the wider Wexford GAA community have been left in in mourning.
Taking to social media, the club posted this message on their Facebook page, where they revealed that the young girl's name was Aoibheann.
The 16 year old was also known for her exploits on the soccer pitch, having lined out for All Blacks AFC and Wexford FC.
A few weeks earlier, she had featured as part of a Wexford side that won the FAI Women's Under 19 Inter-League title.
The entire soccer club of Wexford FC and the wider community have been rallying behind the young girl's family as they come to terms with this unimaginably painful loss.
