Six years after a devastating cancer diagnosis, Jarlath Waters’ 9-year-old son Quinn received a cancer-free brain scan — just a week before this devoted dad collapsed in the Dublin airport and a new brain tumor made itself known.

“It’s really like unimaginable that we’re in this place now, to be honest,” said Tara Waters, Jarlath’s wife and Quinn’s mom. “We were just a week after my son had had a clean scan, the Monday before my husband had this accident. And so, we thought — we had a whole week of, ‘God, we’re so blessed.’

“And we are still so blessed, we’re so lucky that Quinn’s doing so well, but to then have this happen is just kind of, it’s honestly, it’s, very,” she said, pausing to look for the right word. “It’s stressful.”

The Weymouth family took on their first battle with cancer in February 2019, when Quinn was first diagnosed with a brain tumor a day after his third birthday. Through that treatment and a relapse in the years to follow, the young boy — nicknamed for Bob Dylan’s song “The Mighty Quinn” — became of focal point of bravery and resilience for community members from neighbors to celebrities to other cancer survivors.

On Monday, April 7, the family was in for another shock as Jarleth Waters was heading home from his brother’s weekend birthday celebration in Ireland.

Over the weekend, Jarlath said, he had what he understands now to have been small seizures, and he was “disoriented” on the way to the airport with his sister Monday.

“I went through security at Dublin airport, headed to U.S. security, and got even more disoriented,” Jarlath said. “My sister got nervous, and she asked my brother to call me. As I was talking to my brother on the phone, I had a full brain seizure and fell and had massive head trauma.”

The father pitched forward onto a counter at the airport, breaking multiple bones in his face and jaw, and was taken to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin. There they found a mass in his brain.

Doctors induced a coma, which he would remain in for the next three and a half to four days, Tara said. He would remain stuck thousands of miles from home, awaiting treatment for nearly two weeks.

After years of rallying around the Mighty Quinn, family and friends, the Boston Irish community, the local carpenters union — which Jarlath Water works within — Quincy police, nuns with the Daughters of Mary of Nazareth, and beyond jumped to the family’s side.

“We didn’t know, will he wake up from the coma,” said Mother Olga of the Daughters of Mary of Nazareth, the family’s oft-present spiritual advisor. “And here they are in the two different countries. So I immediately trusted in the Lord, and I said, ‘You just go home, pack. I will get flight for you and the kids, and I’m taking you to Ireland.’”

In the ICU on Tuesday morning, Mother Olga said, the “gravity of his situation was very clear.”

Tara’s first thought was of getting him back to the U.S., she said, but transporting him required a Boston hospital willing to receive him and a private medical flight over the Atlantic.

A friend connected the family with the president of Mass General Brigham’s Cancer Institute David Ryan, who agreed to set up appointments for Jarlath once he made it back. The carpenter’s union local 327 jumped to help with the flight, eventually reaching head of Suffolk Construction John Fish.

Suffolk Construction’s Giving Circle paid for part of the nearly $100,000 bill for the medical flight, and Fish covered the other portion personally, saying he was “very honored and privileged to be able to be part of the solution.”

Getting back was a “monumental task,” Jarlath said, but he made it to the U.S. on Friday, April 18.

“After spending two weeks of uncertainty in the hospital in Ireland, within four hours in the hospital in Boston, there was more done than I had in the two weeks,” Jarlath said.

Jarlath had brain surgery awake at MGB on Tuesday — which he said was a “huge success,” noting he can “still talk” — then met with a speech therapist, and received word he would be discharged during a phone interview Wednesday evening.

“I now have six to 10 days to wait on pathology on what they removed, to find out if we’re dealing with cancer, what our next step is,” said Jarlath, speaking slowly but coherently in his Irish accent. “But at least I’m alive and able to have those conversations, after these three weeks since all this started.”

Facing the possibility of cancer again is hard, Tara said, but noted they have “spiritual strength” and “a great group of people around us.”

“They’re all just in as much shock as we are that this is even a possibility, that we could be looking at brain cancer, but in Quinn’s dad, you know?” said Tara. “We’re kind of calling him the ‘Mighty Dad,’ and I know he’s got the best inspiration around.”

Jarlath called all the support people have given him and his family “immense.”

Related Articles

Whooping cough cases are rising again in the US, challenging public health departments

RFK Jr. recounts heroin addiction and spiritual awakening, urges focus on prevention and community

Worries about flying seem to be taking off. Here’s how to cope with in-flight anxiety

Measles misinformation is on the rise — and Americans are hearing it, survey finds

States that enshrined Medicaid expansion in their constitutions could be in a bind

“I’m just incredibly grateful for the fact that there’s so many good people in the world, and at a time when there’s a lot of negativity that can be focused on, there’s so much good that outweighs it,” Jarlath said. “Inherently good people in the world that want to see people do well. Just very blessed, very grateful for the community that we live in.”

“In an instant everything changes,” Jarlath added, but e has “another chance at life,” Jarlath added, but he has another chance at life and intends to make the most of it “in a positive way.”