HELPED TO SAVE BOY’S LIFE

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28130, 20 November 1956, Page 3

HELPED TO SAVE BOY’S LIFE

DOCTOR COMMENDS GIRL’S ACTION A Sumner doctor has written to St John Ambulance headquarters in Christchurch commending the action of a 14-year-old Sumner girl who helped to save a boy’s life recently. The girl. Dorice Thomas, is a Standard VI pupil at the Sumner School and she has been a member of the Sumner Cadet Nursing Division of the St. John Ambulance Brigade for the last three years. While playing on Cave Rock recently Ronald Noel McConchie, aged nine, fell into the water. He was unconscious when his companion, aged 11 years, pulled him on to the rocks. The girl, who was on the beach, came to the stricken boy’s aid. She helped to get him to the beach and began to apply artificial respiration using a technique that she was taught during her training with the cadet nursing division. Later when a doctor removed the boy to hospital in her car, Dorice Thomas went, too, and continued to assist with the treatment. The doctor, who wishes to remain anonymous, said yesterday that the girl’s action probably contributed to saving the boy's life. “She said Dorice had acted promptly. She was most skilful and helpful’,” said the doctor.