MY FRIENDS CRIED WITH PAIN
My friends cried with pain
THE AMBULANCE MAN
OMAGH'S leading ambulance person Billy Armstrong has been dealing with medical emergencies for 25 years.
His career has brought him into direct contact with the dead and maimed from some of Ulster's worst terrorist atrocities.
But nothing prepared the 56-year-old veteran for the horrific scenes of carnage in his home town last Saturday.
Billy was at home, preparing to go on duty at 4pm, when he heard the explosion.
He recalls: "Normally you'd get a phonecall, but the lines were down.
"I realised I needed to get into the town quick. A neighbour said there was a pile of people dead, I thought he was exaggerating.
"My wife was hysterical because our teenage daughter was shopping in town with her friends.
"I went straight to the depot and into the town.
"It was probably ten minutes after the bomb and there was a scene of total carnage.
"I met an old mate, Thomas Blee who is a paramedic and he directed me to where the worst of the casualties were.
"There were bodies lying everywhere, as well as walking wounded.
"We had to ignore the walking wounded for the time being and tell them someone was on their way, while we dealt with the worst of the injured.
Casualty
"When we got back to the hospital we couldn't get near casualty with the cars parked everywhere.
"When we did get to casualty, it was full of injured people.
"Inside was so full that the people were out the back with no overhead cover, sitting on chairs and lying on mattresses.
"I just started helping in casualty, trying to make people as comfortable as I could.
"I still didn't know about my daughter.
"I know it sounds selfish, but when my wife came to the hospital to let me know she was a it was just a great sense of relief. Unfortunately, her two friends were killed. "
Everywhere Billy looked, were friends and neighbours crying out in pain for help.
He said: "One man I knew was searching for his wife and asked me if I had seen her, I couldn't bring myself to tell him his wife was dead.
"The injuries were horrific. It was like a battlefield. Everybody was calling for help, you just went to whoever seemed most in need."
It took three days for the horror of Saturday to hit Billy.
He said: "I couldn't sleep and on Tuesday morning, I saw it all again. I just relived it as if it was the first time it happened.
"I went to the doctor, and he gave me something to help me sleep.
"It's just terrible. It will be generations before this town gets over it."
THE AMBULANCE MAN
OMAGH'S leading ambulance person Billy Armstrong has been dealing with medical emergencies for 25 years.
His career has brought him into direct contact with the dead and maimed from some of Ulster's worst terrorist atrocities.
But nothing prepared the 56-year-old veteran for the horrific scenes of carnage in his home town last Saturday.
Billy was at home, preparing to go on duty at 4pm, when he heard the explosion.
He recalls: "Normally you'd get a phonecall, but the lines were down.
"I realised I needed to get into the town quick. A neighbour said there was a pile of people dead, I thought he was exaggerating.
"My wife was hysterical because our teenage daughter was shopping in town with her friends.
"I went straight to the depot and into the town.
"It was probably ten minutes after the bomb and there was a scene of total carnage.
"I met an old mate, Thomas Blee who is a paramedic and he directed me to where the worst of the casualties were.
"There were bodies lying everywhere, as well as walking wounded.
"We had to ignore the walking wounded for the time being and tell them someone was on their way, while we dealt with the worst of the injured.
Casualty
"When we got back to the hospital we couldn't get near casualty with the cars parked everywhere.
"When we did get to casualty, it was full of injured people.
"Inside was so full that the people were out the back with no overhead cover, sitting on chairs and lying on mattresses.
"I just started helping in casualty, trying to make people as comfortable as I could.
"I still didn't know about my daughter.
"I know it sounds selfish, but when my wife came to the hospital to let me know she was a it was just a great sense of relief. Unfortunately, her two friends were killed. "
Everywhere Billy looked, were friends and neighbours crying out in pain for help.
He said: "One man I knew was searching for his wife and asked me if I had seen her, I couldn't bring myself to tell him his wife was dead.
"The injuries were horrific. It was like a battlefield. Everybody was calling for help, you just went to whoever seemed most in need."
It took three days for the horror of Saturday to hit Billy.
He said: "I couldn't sleep and on Tuesday morning, I saw it all again. I just relived it as if it was the first time it happened.
"I went to the doctor, and he gave me something to help me sleep.
"It's just terrible. It will be generations before this town gets over it."
Further Information
Publisher: SUNDAY LIFE
Ref: SL/025
Published Date: 23-Aug-98
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