Schoolboy Brandon Flanighan gets award for saving mum

May 29 2009 by Peter Taylor, The Journal

A SCHOOLBOY hailed a hero after using first aid training learned at school to save his mum is heading to London to receive a top award.

Brandon Flanighan, 12, stayed calm and remembered the lifesaving lessons from the young first-aider course after he and his sister Lara, 13, found their mum Jacqueline, 44, lying semi-conscious in a pool of blood in the kitchen. She had collapsed and gashed her head at the family home.

The youngsters pulled her onto the sofa, where Brandon put her in the recovery position and raised her legs, all the time talking to her to keep her awake and stop her from passing out again.

Brandon applied pressure to his mum’s bleeding head wound with a clean tea towel – while Lara called for help – and stayed with her until his dad James, 44, and an ambulance crew arrived, giving paramedics a detailed description of what had happened. Now the schoolboy is to receive the St John Ambulance Young First Aider of the Year Award, which rewards young people who have used first aid skills to save a life or help an injured person in a real emergency.