TLA student helps elderly man who collapsed outside Lidl

A SCHOOLBOY and his girlfriend have been hailed as heroes after they jumped into action to look after an elderly man who had collapsed.

Evan Theobald and his girlfriend Lodie Harvey-Tralau were walking down Abbot’s Road in Colchester after school.

The Thomas, Lord Audley students noticed an elderly man who had collapsed outside the Lidl supermarket.

They rushed over and Evan, 15, who has first aid training, checked the man’s vital signs before contacting the ambulance service.

Evan, from Mersea, said: “I noticed there was a woman on the phone and a man leaning against a lamp post.

“I went over and asked if he could hear me.

“He said he could but then he collapsed.

“I asked him if he had hit his head. He said he didn’t remember but he clearly had.

“He said he had felt dizzy before falling. I asked the ambulance service to upgrade the call as he had pains in his chest and shortness of breath.”

Lodie, 15, said a call had already been put in to the ambulance service when they got there.

 

She said: “We were walking back from school at about 3.20pm on Monday and we saw an old man on the floor.

“We went over and a lady said she had called an ambulance but it would take three hours.

“Evan took his pulse. Another lady stopped and called the ambulance again and it came in about 40 minutes.

“Loads of people stopped.”

Evan said the man turned out to be diabetic and he believes he was having a ‘hypo’.

He said: “He had been walking quite far and said he still had a mile until he was home.

“He was a great guy and he was quite funny, he was trying to make a joke.

“As a joke I had given Lodie a foil rescue blanket and she still had it in her bag, so we used that.

“He was diabetic and didn’t have much to eat that day.”

The man was taken to Colchester Hospital for further treatment.

Evan is a member of the Essex Army Cadet For and has taken part in the St John’s Ambulance Youth First aid course.

He has also had road traffic collision and seizure training.

When he leaves school, he said he wants to join the ambulance service as an emergency medical technician before training to be a paramedic.

He said: “I have dealt with quite a few first aid incidents but I just take a deep breath.

“When you have the training it’s just muscle memory.

“I do get nervous sometimes but only when things look like they are getting serious as I just want to provide the best possible care.”

Since the incident, three different members of the public have called the school to praise him and school staff say they are equally as proud.

A spokesman for Thomas Lord Audley School said: “We are extremely proud of the action Evan took.”

 

To read more click HERE