All parents should learn first aid say couple whose toddler’s
life was saved by St John Ambulance ‘guardian angel’
A couple whose two-year-old son’s life was saved by a St John
Ambulance ‘guardian angel’ are now determined to learn emergency
first aid and are urging all new parents to do the same.
Book
a first aid course
Kirsty and Lewis Mulholland, who live in Warboys in
Cambridgeshire, believe parents should equip themselves with life
saving skills so they never have to suffer the feelings of blind
panic and helplessness they experienced when their son Buddy
stopped breathing.
It was the evening of Thursday 28 January when they found
themselves faced with the kind of nightmare life or death situation
which they thought only happened to other people.
Earlier in the day Kirsty had taken their nine-month-old
daughter Bonnie to the doctor who diagnosed hand, foot and mouth
viral infection. By the afternoon, it seemed Buddy was suffering
from the same infection as he was lethargic and off his food.
Kirsty gave him some medication to bring down his temperature
before putting him to bed. She’d just finished reading him his
bedtime story when he suffered a febrile convulsion.
'All I could think of was that I had to get him to my neighbour
who works for St John Ambulance'
‘His eyes rolled back in his head, his jaw was locked and he was
fitting,’ said Kirsty. ‘I ran downstairs with him, shouting at
Lewis to call an ambulance. Everything was a blur at the time but
all I could think of was that I had to get him to my neighbour who
works for St John Ambulance.’
Without stopping to put her shoes on, Kirsty ran across her
garden to the home of St John Ambulance trainer Jim Smith who lives
two doors away. Before she reached Jim’s house, Buddy stopped
breathing.
Jim, 64, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last
year, was at home convalescing from recent surgery to remove his
pancreas and spleen.
‘My wife Tina and I were watching television when there was a
knock at the door and there was Kirsty with Buddy who was lifeless
and not breathing,’ he said.
‘I grabbed the child and put him on the floor to assess him. He
was completely unresponsive so I started resuscitation while Tina
was looking after Kirsty. I gave him a couple of rescue breaths but
didn’t get as far as chest compressions as he gave a sudden gasp
and started breathing again.’
‘He opened his eyes and I called to his mum that he was OK. But
then he lost consciousness again so I put him in the recovery
position while we waited for the ambulance to arrive.’
Jim had been told by his doctors to ‘take things easy’ after his
operation. He pulled a stomach muscle while reviving Buddy and has
since started chemotherapy to destroy any remaining cancer
cells.
He says: ‘I just did what needed to be done. It was lucky I was
at home. If this had happened a week before Christmas I’d have been
in the intensive care unit recovering from surgery.’
Jim has worked for St John Ambulance since 1988. As one
of our workplace trainers, he teaches first aid to employees
of local businesses and he’s also Safeguarding Manager for our
East Region, responsible for the safety and welfare of young
volunteers and vulnerable adults.
‘You just never think something like this is going to happen to
you’
‘You just never think something like this is going to happen to
you,’ says Kirsty. ‘But now I know it can happen to anyone,
anywhere at any time. I keep thinking about what would have
happened if it hadn’t been for Jim. He’s my guardian angel and I’ll
never be able to repay him.’
Kirsty and Lewis will be learning how to deal with common
medical emergencies involving children when they attend a
St John Ambulance emergency first aid course in the near
future.
Earlier this year, we launched our
nursery rhyme-themed national awareness campaign to teach
parents and the wider public how to save the life of a baby who’s
stopped breathing.
The campaign was born out of new research showing this is the
first aid emergency feared by most parents - yet only one in four
know what to do.
As part of the campaign we're organising special baby first aid
courses throughout the country. To see the campaign film
and learn how to perform baby CPR (cardio-pulmonary
resuscitation) visit:
sja.org.uk/NurseryRhymesInc
Book
a first aid course
Learn baby CPR with Nursery Rhymes Inc