Cornish Guardian (Bodmin & East Cornwall)
Family devastated by stabbing hope to install lifesaving kit
THE sister of a teenager who died after being stabbed in Bodmin last year now plans to install equipment in the town which she hopes could save lives in similar incidents in the future.
Natalie Bartlett, 38, said the death of her “baby brother” Lucas Underwood, 18, had turned the lives of his family upside-down.
Lucas died on July 23 in the car park of Bodmin Hospital, where he had been driven by a member of the public after suffering a stab wound at a property in the town.
Police went to a house on Wallace Road in the early hours of July 23 after a report that Lucas had been seriously injured in an altercation.
An unnamed youth aged 17, also from Bodmin, was charged with Lucas’ murder and remanded in custody, but in October the charge was dropped and he was released.
The Crown Prosecution Service defended its decision, saying there was “no longer a realistic prospect of conviction”.
Natalie, from Penryn, near Falmouth, said Lucas’ loved ones had been denied the chance to see him get married and one day start a family of his own.
In his memory she has been working towards getting an emergency bleed control kit installed in Bodmin, in the hope it could save someone else’s life.
“Lucas was the best baby brother, not just to me but to Ronnie, Lauren and Chloe,” she said.
“He was very loving and cared about us all.
“The best part of me being the big sister was watching him grow into the man he become before he died.
“He was the best brother to us and the most amazing son to his mum Helen and dad Ricky.
“Losing Lucas was the most heartbreaking thing that ever happened to us. Losing our boy, we will never get the chance to see him get married or see him having kids. He will always be for ever 18: our Peter Pan.”
An emergency bleed control kit contains easy-to-use equipment such as a tourniquet, gauze and shears for cutting open clothing.
With these, a member of the public can control blood loss and potentially keep the patient alive for vital minutes until paramedics arrive on the scene and can take over.
The kit is kept in a locked box which can be opened using a code supplied by a 999 call operator.
“The box will be coded so you would have to ring the number to get the code,” said Natalie.
“Hopefully if this ever happened again this box could save a life. I would give anything to have my brother back.”
Following his death, Lucas’ family laid flowers in his memory at Bodmin Hospital, near the spot where he died, and his mother Helen Bartlett launched an online fundraising campaign with a target of £40,000, hoping to get the investigation reopened. The GoFundMe page has so far raised £6,648.
❝❝ Losing our boy, we will never get the chance to see him get married or see him having kids. He will always be for ever 18: our Peter Pan Natalie Bartlett