Dad saves son after learning to give baby CPR

A TOBERMORY dad used the skills he learned at a baby CPR training event in Oban when his infant son stopped breathing last month, writes David McPhee.

A normal Saturday afternoon took a turn for the worse for Kayleigh and Alec Brown when Kayleigh noticed something was not right with their eight-month-old son Ruaridh.

Kayleigh, 25, said: ‘Ruaridh woke up from a nap and I went to give him his lunch and by the time I turned back round he was just staring at the wall. I tried to shout him but there was nothing. I picked him up and he flopped in my arms.’

At the time, Alec was out in the garden playing with their three-year-old son Calum.

‘I shouted him to come in,’ Kayleigh added. ‘And by that time Ruaridh had stopped breathing. It was awful. Alec put him on the ground and started to give him CPR. It felt like forever, but it was probably a few minutes. The ambulance came in 18 minutes and by that time he had come back round.’

After giving CPR for a few minutes, Ruaridh began to cough and vomit. The family was airlifted to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow and Ruaridh was kept in for three nights.

Kayleigh said: ‘I’d just like to say a massive thank you to the ambulance crew. They were just amazing.’

Alec learned to give CPR at a baby CPR training event in January organised by Fearghas and Natalie Lafferty.

The Oban couple organised the training after their son Murray stopped breathing last year. Luckily, Fearghas knew how to administer CPR. Kayleigh and Alec are hoping to follow in the Oban couple’s footsteps and organise a CPR training event of their own in Mull.

Kayleigh added: ‘We owe it to them [Natalie and Fearghas] big time. If they had not organised that, I don’t know what the outcome would have been.’

Fearghas said: ‘We are over the moon Ruaridh is okay. It’s exactly why we did it.

‘You hope you are never going to need these things, but it’s good to know if you do. Alec has done fantastically well to be able to carry that out. I know how it feels myself. You just want to know what to do.’

Fearghas thanked Annmarie Pattison from St Andrew’s First Aid who carried out the training in January.