Five-year-old boy helps save grandmother’s life

When faced with a family emergency, the calm nature and quick thinking of Rylan Wulff, a Grade R Hillcrest Primary School learner, ensured help arrived for his grandmother in the nick of time, reports Highway Mail.

64-year-old Sue Marx made her way to the bathroom when she woke up feeling nauseted in her Forest Hills granny flat on Saturday, 15 February.

“I felt like vomiting and after that all hell broke loose. I just kept on vomiting thick, black blood. I thought I was dying. I eventually called for my husband to fetch my daughter, Tarryn (Wulff). I was in trouble and I needed her to get me an ambulance.

“I was lying on the floor and, for some reason, even in that state, I thought I better get into the shower to try to clean myself up,” said Sue. “My daughter came into the bathroom, took one look and I remember hearing her scream as she ran out. She called Rohan, her husband, to call an ambulance.”

In a panic, neither Tarryn nor Rohan knew what number to call. However, five-year-old Rylan piped up and said he knew a number for an ambulance. He quickly recited the number for ER24, a number he remembered from a talk done at his school only days before. Rylan rushed to the kitchen and grabbed the water bottle he was given at the demo as it had the number of the ambulance service on it.

The number was called and paramedics Richard Bowker and Devon Fisher were dispatched and arrived shortly after 7am. Despite the bloody scene awaiting the paramedics, Devon said it was a normal case for the both of them.

Sue was lying half in and half out of the one-by-one metre shower.

“Your medical training kicks in and you know what you are dealing with. She was very pale, quite confused as to what was going on and slipped in and out of consciousness. She had lost a large amount of blood,” said Devon.

It was only later the two paramedics learnt the reason behind ER24 being called to the scene.

“When we were told the little boy knew the number of who to call from one of our school demos; we both got cold chills and were like ‘wow, it really makes a difference’,” said Devon.

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