Families of Berkeley injured request time to recover

The families of four students hurt in the Berkeley balcony collapse who are still being treated in the US have issued a lengthy statement, thanking people for the support and asking for time and space for their recovery.

The relatives of Aoife Beary, Clodagh Cogley, Niall Murray and Hannah Waters who are being treated in a hospital in Santa Clara, south of San Francisco, said their “constant thoughts and prayers” were with the families of the six students killed in Berkeley in June.

They paid tribute to the J1 students and emergency responders who tended to the seven Dublin students injured at the scene of the fourth-floor balcony collapse and to everyone who has helped since.

The families said they were “very mindful of the many friends who were there in Berkeley that terrible night, some of whom were also seriously injured and others who responded so tenderly to the needs of our children at the scene and in the immediate horrific aftermath”.

Tragic end

The students who tended to the victims “could never have imagined such a tragic end to their J1 experience”, while others stayed on to help their injured friends, they said. “We are so grateful for what they have done and for what they are continuing to do,” the statement said.

“They too are victims, and they have also had to deal with the trauma of this terrible loss. We salute them all as genuine heroes and we ask them to take great care of themselves and to continue to look after each other in the coming difficulties. They too will take time to heal.”

The families expressed thanks to the police, paramedics and fire department staff who were first on the scene at the Library Gardens apartment complex on Kittredge Street in downtown Berkeley within minutes of the accident: “Their early interventions contributed so much to keeping our grievously injured children alive.” They thanked everyone who contributed to the fundraising efforts for the injured and for the other types of support including “random but very moving acts of kindness and generosity”.

Six students – Eimear Walsh, Ashley Donohoe, Olivia Burke, Niccolai Schuster, Lorcán Miller and Eoghan Culligan – died in the fourth-floor balcony collapse on June 16th.

Three of the seven students injured – Seán Fahey, Jack Halpin and Conor Flynn – have already returned to Dublin to continue their recovery.

The four families asked the many friends and well-wishers in Ireland for time and space to allow their children to continue their recovery after they return home: “We obviously share everyone’s wish for speedy recoveries but we have found that every new week brings more complexity and that the road to recovery is far from straight, even in the very best of clinical environments.”

They asked the media to continue to respect their privacy.