Quick action saves toddler
.
Quick action saves toddler
By ALICE COWDREY Monday, 01 December 2008
MARTIN DE RUYTER/
LITTLE HERO: Ciarna Epiha’s alert saved Degan Broker from drowning.
The actions of a quick-thinking Nelson five-year-old girl helped to save a toddler's life.
Ciarna said she quickly ran inside to alert Degan's mother Cindy Broker, who had gone indoors to answer a phone call.
Ciarna Epiha, who attends Stoke School, was playing outside at a friend's house on Saturday when she found 18-month-old Degan Broker in an old bathtub used as a tadpole pond in the garden.
She pulled him out of the water and hit him on the back, and he vomited and started screaming and coughing.
Mrs Broker ran outside to find Degan on his back with water covering his face, his body floppy and his arms "flailing around". . Mrs Broker rushed him to Nelson Hospital's accident and emergency department, where he was checked and given the all-clear."
She hoped that other parents would realise just how quickly things could happen.
"He would have been dead if (Ciarna) didn't tell us.
She had talked to Ciarna about accidents, and said she had good common sense.
Ciarna's mother Letitia Friend said her daughter did not seem too fazed by her heroics and was more interested in telling her about Saturday's Richmond Santa parade.
"She is my little hero.
"I had told her, `If you see something bad happening, you find an adult and tell them straight away'."