Boys save elderly woman
Two 11-year-old boys are being praised for their compassion and maturity, after going to the aid of an elderly woman near their school in Stoke.
Aaron Charlett and Riley Tootell were walking home from Broadgreen Intermediate school last Thursday when they heard Olive Buckingham call out for help.
The 94-year-old was holding onto the doorway of her home off Nayland Rd, shaking badly, the pair said.
They called 111, and guided her back into the house on Langbein St.
The emergency services asked ‘‘lots of questions’’ on the phone, Tootell said.
‘‘We got her to lie down . . . as comfy as she could.’’
Charlett then stayed with her, while Tootell went out on road to guide the ambulance into the street.
The pair left after paramedics arrived.
They saw Buckingham again
for the first time five days later on Tuesday, when they went to her house with gifts.
‘‘I should be spending money on you, not the other way around,’’ said Buckingham who praised the boys’ willingness to help.
‘‘I don’t know what I would have done.
‘‘I can’t say they saved my life, but I felt at the time that they did,’’ she said.
Buckingham (who was born on the same day as the Queen, April 21, 1926) struggled to walk after breaking her pelvis in a fall in February, and said she felt like she was going to pass out when she called to the boys for help.
She was allowed to go back home after getting checked out at a nearby medical centre on Thursday.
Broadgreen principal Pete Mitchener said the boys were treated to a hot chocolate at school for their efforts.
‘‘We are all so proud of the calm way they handled this situation, their caring manner and their maturity to know what to do,’’ Mitchener said.
It was a ‘‘bit of a challenge’’ calling 111 for the first time, Tootell said.
While it was a ‘‘scary’’ experience, it was one they were proud of, Charlett said.
‘‘I don’t know what I would have done. I can’t say they saved my life, but I felt at the time that they did.’’
Olive Buckingham