©InfoWhen 93-year-old Vera House fell at home and sustained a nasty gash to her head, her neighbour Chris Cox – a Red Cross first aider – was the first on the scene.
Chris, from Somerton in Somerset, has lived next door to Vera for more than 25 years. The pair are good friends, so when the stricken neighbour pressed her emergency pendant alarm Chris immediately heard the beep and raced straight round to help.
Chris – a first aid volunteer for 16 years – found Vera on her knees in a large pool of blood, with her head resting on the kitchen table and a severe wound along her hairline.
‘Losing blood’
He recalled: “My first concern was to stop her losing any more blood so I applied a dressing and pressure to the wound. I got Vera to keep pressure on the wound as I called an ambulance and then I went straight back to her and applied a second dressing until I had stemmed the bleeding.”
The first aider then got Vera into a more comfortable position on the floor, wrapping her in a blanket to prevent her from going into shock. Chris stayed and reassured his ailing neighbour until the paramedics arrived and rushed her to hospital to get her wound stitched up.
‘Training kicks in’
Chris said: “They kept Vera in hospital for a few days for observation, so I went in to visit her. She was very grateful – and was soon back home and looking much brighter.
“I’ve met people with reasonably bad cuts before, but have never seen so much blood. Still, I’m a first aider and the training just kicks in. You know what to do and you get on with it.”
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