AGXStarseed
Well-Known Member
(Not written by me)
Max Willson with his sister, Mini.
Bredon School pupil Max Willson is up for an award after his quick thinking saved his sister’s life.
The 16-year-old, who boards at the school in Bushley, near Tewkesbury, leapt into action when Mini accidentally put her arm through a pane of glass while the pair were on holiday in their parents’ rural home in the south-west of France. It severed an artery and three tendons in her right wrist.
His father, former Top Gear presenter Quentin Willson, was back home in England working and his mother Michaela Willson was also not in the French house at the time.
So Max, who has a form of autism known as Asperger’s syndrome, had to help Mini as best he could.
On hearing her cry out, he rushed to see what had happened and found blood gushing from her wrist. His first instinct was to stem the bleeding so he grabbed kitchen paper and applied pressure to the wound.
Unable to find a first aid kit in the house, Max decided to improvise and, using Duct tape, a place-mat and a towel, he dressed the wound. He used a dog lead to hold it in place on her arm and then contacted the emergency services.
Although Max could not recall the full address of the property, he knew it had a vineyard and so got a bottle of wine from the cellar and used that to spell out his location to the operator.
Mini was taken to hospital and is expected to make a full recovery from the incident, which happened in August last year.
Max partly credits the training he received through the Combined Cadet Force at the school, for saving his sister’s life.
He has been nominated by the school for a Combined Cadet Force Association (CCFA) award and the CCFA is expected to consider the matter shortly.
Max said: “I knew time was of the essence.You could bleed-out with a wound like that.”
He used Google to find out how to ring the emergency services in France and then, through a translator, was able to tell the authorities what had happened.
“I put a red towel on a sign close to the house so they would know where to come to.
“At the end of the ordeal, I realised it’s pretty amazing what you can do under pressure,” he said.
Max’s father, who works as a car journalist and appears on scores of TV and radio shows, said: “I’m enormously proud of him. For Max to cope like that on his own in a foreign country, it makes his achievement even more impressive.
“Had he not acted so quickly, Mini might not be here now.”
He praised Bredon School for providing the cadet training that enabled Max to act as he did, saying it was doing a great job and he had written to the headmaster to tell him so.
And he said it was schools like Bredon that helped bring the best out of young people with special needs.
“We underestimate these kids with these syndromes. It’s surprising. When they’re in the right educational environment, they can do stuff that the rest of us can’t.”
SOURCE: Bredon School pupil Max Willson up for award after saving his sister's life | Gloucestershire Echo
Max Willson with his sister, Mini.
Bredon School pupil Max Willson is up for an award after his quick thinking saved his sister’s life.
The 16-year-old, who boards at the school in Bushley, near Tewkesbury, leapt into action when Mini accidentally put her arm through a pane of glass while the pair were on holiday in their parents’ rural home in the south-west of France. It severed an artery and three tendons in her right wrist.
His father, former Top Gear presenter Quentin Willson, was back home in England working and his mother Michaela Willson was also not in the French house at the time.
So Max, who has a form of autism known as Asperger’s syndrome, had to help Mini as best he could.
On hearing her cry out, he rushed to see what had happened and found blood gushing from her wrist. His first instinct was to stem the bleeding so he grabbed kitchen paper and applied pressure to the wound.
Unable to find a first aid kit in the house, Max decided to improvise and, using Duct tape, a place-mat and a towel, he dressed the wound. He used a dog lead to hold it in place on her arm and then contacted the emergency services.
Although Max could not recall the full address of the property, he knew it had a vineyard and so got a bottle of wine from the cellar and used that to spell out his location to the operator.
Mini was taken to hospital and is expected to make a full recovery from the incident, which happened in August last year.
Max partly credits the training he received through the Combined Cadet Force at the school, for saving his sister’s life.
He has been nominated by the school for a Combined Cadet Force Association (CCFA) award and the CCFA is expected to consider the matter shortly.
Max said: “I knew time was of the essence.You could bleed-out with a wound like that.”
He used Google to find out how to ring the emergency services in France and then, through a translator, was able to tell the authorities what had happened.
“I put a red towel on a sign close to the house so they would know where to come to.
“At the end of the ordeal, I realised it’s pretty amazing what you can do under pressure,” he said.
Max’s father, who works as a car journalist and appears on scores of TV and radio shows, said: “I’m enormously proud of him. For Max to cope like that on his own in a foreign country, it makes his achievement even more impressive.
“Had he not acted so quickly, Mini might not be here now.”
He praised Bredon School for providing the cadet training that enabled Max to act as he did, saying it was doing a great job and he had written to the headmaster to tell him so.
And he said it was schools like Bredon that helped bring the best out of young people with special needs.
“We underestimate these kids with these syndromes. It’s surprising. When they’re in the right educational environment, they can do stuff that the rest of us can’t.”
SOURCE: Bredon School pupil Max Willson up for award after saving his sister's life | Gloucestershire Echo
