Good Samaritan teens come to aid of injured elderly Stockton woman

Two teenage boys have been praised after they helped an elderly woman get to hospital after she fell in the street suffering a head injury

Two teenage boys have been praised after they helped an elderly woman get to hospital after she fell in the street suffering a head injury.

Liam Kay and Brandon Fahey came to the aid of the woman in Stockton High Street and called for an ambulance.

However when the ambulance didn’t arrive, the two schoolboys hailed a taxi for the distressed woman.

The 14-year-olds, who go to Bishopsgarth School in Stockton, were walking to the bus station when they saw the woman on the ground.

Liam, a first aider, said: “She had her face down towards the ground when we got to her. We tried to get her up and there was blood dripping from her face.

“She had a bad wound on her head. I called for an ambulance and was told that one would be there soon. We waited 15 minutes and it didn’t arrive. I rang them again and they said they would send one when they could.

“We were starting to worry as she was really pale and very distressed so we stopped a taxi and another woman, who had stopped to help, paid for it.

“We were disappointed an ambulance didn’t come. She was an elderly woman, who is in shock and bleeding a lot. She could have died, anything can happen whey they are that age. We were really worried. We just kept her talking and calm. But she really needed to get to a hospital.”

The incident happened last Saturday at about 5.45pm.

Liam’s mother Catherine Smith, from Roseworth, Stockton, said: “I am really proud of them. Teenagers don’t get very good press these days and I think what they did in that situation was admirable.”

The North East Ambulance Service also praised the efforts of the boys. A spokeswoman for the service said: “We’d like to say thanks to Liam and Brandon for showing concern for this lady following her injury. All too often we hear negative stories about young people, but these two are obviously very caring lads.

“As an emergency service, our top priority is always life-threatening incidents. Our average response times to these type of calls is just five minutes. We reach 80% of emergencies where people could die in eight minutes or less. If your injury or ailment means you are not at risk of imminent death there could be a delay while our crews deal with higher priority cases such as heart attacks, or serious trauma. Unfortunately, at the time of Liam’s call at 5.46pm, our paramedics were already committed to a number of emergencies where life could have been in danger. We received a follow-up call from the police 18 minutes after Liam had contacted us saying an ambulance was no longer required.”