Angels of Walker saved my baby
BABY BOY SUDDENLY STOPS BREATHING
TAXI driver Brian Stark was waiting for his next fare when he turned into a heroic life-saver.
Minding his own business, the 47-year-old was sitting in his cab when mum Vicki Ridley tapped on his window cradling her five-weekold son.
Baby Shay had stopped breathing after a chest infection brought on sepsis, moments after leaving the family home on Parsons Avenue, Walker, Newcastle.
Luckily for Vicki, the right people at the right time happened to be on her doorstep as Brian and passer-by Natalie Thompson sprung into action.
“It was just like any other day,” said Brian, who works for Walker Taxis.
“I was in a world of my own and all of a sudden a lady tapped on my window and said, ‘Please help, my baby is not breathing.’
“It was a shock but I just leapt out of my taxi and she passed the baby to me. I’m just a normal bloke and I’ve never had anything like that before.
“My daughter’s 25, it’s a long time since I’ve dealt with a baby.”
As Brian worked on Shay, Vicki rang 999.
The baby gasped “like in shock,” said Brian, but quickly stopped breathing again.
It was at this point that mother-ofthree Natalie walked down the street and was called over to help.
She began winding Shay and, like Brian, managed to get him draw breath as a distraught Vicki looked on. Eventually, Shay was breathing regularly again by the time an ambulance arrived.
Natalie said: “I couldn’t believe what was happening. I was panicstricken, but managed to keep myself calm.
“I still can’t quite believe what I did. It must have been the life or death situation. I just told myself, ‘Natalie, get yourself together. This baby needs you.’”
It was by pure fate that Natalie was on Parsons Avenue that day on March 27.
She was due to go to Slimming World in Wallsend, but realised she had her times wrong shortly before boarding a bus.
“I’m not someone who would ever preach but I am a Catholic,” Natalie said.
“I do believe God puts you where you’re meant to be and I could have been on a bus on my way to Wallsend – and what then?”
A week on, Shay remains in a stable condition in intensive care. He is on antibiotics trying to fight the infection which brought on his sepsis.
Vicki says she owes everything to the guardian angels who saved her son’s life.
The 32-year-old, also mum to Callum, 14, Kay, 13, and eight-year-
I couldn’t believe what was happening. I was panic-stricken but managed to keep myself calm Natalie Thompson
old Lacey, said: “Without the people who were there to help that day I would have been lost.
“No words could ever express how grateful me and Shay’s dad Stuart are for all the help from everyone that day.
“At hospital, we nearly lost Shay a couple more times and the doctor said that if it wasn’t for the help that he got so quickly, he wouldn’t be here. They definitely saved his life and we’re hopeful he will pull through this.”
Vicki wants to use their ordeal to raise awareness of sepsis. More information can be found at www. nhs.uk