Oldsmobile/Buick Repair: Catalytic converter damage, oldsmobile acheiva, exaust system

Question
I have a 1997 Oldsmobile Acheiva, 2.4 liter
4 cyl. with 110000 miles.  While driving recently, the car started to shake and sputter.  It had trouble accelerating, and I smelled a strange odor.  Being it was a sunday, no service stations were open, I drove to the nearest gas station which was 10 or so minutes away.  I looked under the car where i saw a section of pipe behind the catalytic converter was glowing red hot.  I got the car fixed, what had happened was an ignition coil had failed causing a misfirein two of the cylinders  This, I am told, caused raw gas to be mixed in with the exaust.  Which then hit the catayltic converter and ignited and caused the catalytic converter to melt and damage the rest of the exaust system.  My question is could the damage to the exaust system and the catalytic converter have been prevented if I had not continued driving once the car first started misfiring and stopped.  I have never had problems with the ignition system or the exaust system before this incident  

Answer
HI BRIAN..NO BRIAN IT WOULD NOT HAVE MATTERED ,YOU SEE WHEN THE MISS STARTED THE DAMAGE HAD ALREADY BEEN DONE.CONVERTERS HAVE PLATNUM IN THEM AND UNBURNED FUEL MIXED WITH PLATNUM AND SULFER CREATE A BLOW TORCH EFFECT .WHICH IS WAY TOO HOT FOR THE CONVERTER..PLEASE RATE MY HELP TY BILLY MAC