Ambulance honour for Bedlington schoolgirl
A Bedlington schoolgirl who courageously dealt with an allergic reaction has received a bravery certificate from North East Ambulance Service.
Eleanor Jordan, aged 11, needed an ambulance in August after some of the residue from a bath product caused her eye to swell.
Rapid Response Paramedic John Hepworth was first on scene, backed up by Paramedic Dave Herbert and Emergency Care Assistant Louise Brown.
They transferred Eleanor straight into the ambulance, irrigated her eye and cannulated her to give her the medication she required, before taking her to the RVI.
They were so impressed by Bedlington Station Primary School girl’s maturity that they decided to award her a bravery certificate.
Louise said: “Eleanor was very mature for her age, she took her treatment better than many adults would have.
“She was just so calm and accepted everything that we needed to do to her without any drama.”
Dave, from Amble, added: “Children usually get hysterical when they are cannulated but she was so calm and let us do everything we needed to do. Eleanor she didn’t even flinch. I’ve never known a little one so good.
“It was obviously causing her some distress because her eye was quite swollen. She must have been in quite a lot of discomfort but she didn’t let it show.
“She was a real little star and we thought she deserved to be recognised for that.”
Eleanor’s dad, David said: “Eleanor had been in the bath earlier that night. Nothing happened straight away but she had been rubbing her eye so we think she maybe just got a bit of the residue off it in her eye.
“By the time help arrived, her eye looked like a fish eye, it had swollen up like she had been punched.
“I was quite impressed with her myself, I expected her to be a little bit more skittish about it. It’s really nice of Louise and Dave to recognise her in this way.”
Notes to editors
About North East Ambulance Service
North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (NEAS) covers 3,200 square miles across the North East region. It employs more than 2,500 staff and serves a population of 2.7 million people by handling all NHS 111 and 999 calls for the region, operating patient transport and ambulance response services, delivering training for communities and commercial audiences and providing medical support cover at events.
In 2015/16 the service answered 1.160 million emergency 999 and NHS 111 calls, responded to 295,855 incidents that resulted in a patient being taken to hospital, treated and discharged, 19,949 patients with telephone advice and treated and discharged 85,021 patients at home. In the same year, emergency care crews reached 132,948 Red incidents within the national target of 8 minutes.