Musician Steve Wall has described a car crash in which his niece died and left his younger brother Vincent in a critical condition as a "tragedy beyond belief".
The lead singer of The Stunning and The Walls has appealed to the public to help his brother’s family.
Estlin Wall died in Temple Street Children’s University Hospital in Dublin on Saturday night. She would have celebrated her fourth birthday this week.
She was critically injured in the two car crash on the N85 Ennis to Ennistymon road at Ballyea South last Wednesday.
Estlin had been travelling from Ennistymon to a creche in Inagh with her father when the collision occurred
The youngster was initially flown by helicopter to University Hospital Limerick before being transferred to a specialist unit at Temple Street Children's University Hospital in Dublin.
On his Facebook page, Steve Wall posted: "Last Wednesday morning my youngest brother Vincent and his almost 4-year-old daughter Estlin were involved in a terrible car crash in Co. Clare. Vincent is in hospital in Dublin with massive brain injuries and still hasn't opened his eyes. At around 9pm last night little Estlin's life support was turned off and she passed away in her mother Amy's arms, who is also nursing their 12-week old baby Mannix. It's a tragedy beyond belief and we are all in bits.
“The details of Estlin’s funeral in Ennistymon will be on RIP.ie soon. Please don’t send any flowers, but consider donating something, no matter how small, to a fund set up by the community of Ennistymon to help Amy and Vinnie through the difficult times ahead and Vincent’s rehabilitation. Vinnie is much loved by everyone in West Clare and beyond.”
Vincent was transported to hospital in Limerick by ambulance. He was later transferred to a Dublin hospital where he remains unconscious after suffering a serious brain injury.
Three ambulances and a rapid response advanced paramedic unit responded to the collision along with two units of the local authority fire service from Ennistymon.
A local doctor who came upon the scene stopped to help the injured as did a nurse who was also passing at the time.
After arriving at the scene paramedics assessed the casualties and requested support from the Emergency Aeromedical Service (EAS) air ambulance.
Posting on Facebook shortly before Estlin died, her mother Amy thanked the staff at Temple Street Hospital whom she said were “beyond amazing”.
She was hopeful that Vinnie will recover. “He is off sedation since yesterday and won’t wake for some time. He will most likely need weeks if not months of rehabilitation. He will not get to say goodbye to his precious little legend. He most likely will have some memory loss.
“But as I said, there are too many unknowns in his case at this time but his phenomenal doctor (who also worked on Estlin and called Limerick to have him transferred into his care so they were both here in Dublin) is cautiously optimistic.”
A fundraising page has been set up and had reached almost €13,000 by 4 pm on Sunday. An initial fundraising target of €20,000 has now been doubled.
Her family, the Dutil’s, have arrived from the US and the Wall family have also gathered in Dublin where they’ve been supported by some of Vinnie and Amy’s close friends.
The fundraising page is available here.
