Aiden Buckleigh. 69273
By Casey Neill
EMERALD 10-year-old Aiden Buckleigh is a lifesaver.
The Cockatoo Primary School student stayed calm under pressure and called for an ambulance when family friend Val collapsed on 5 August.
Aiden was home sick from school and Val was painting the house with help from his friend Doug.
“Mum was on the phone to him about two minutes before it happened, and he was sounding a bit slurry,” Aiden said. Moments later he was unconscious and unresponsive.
“Doug was panicking and I just got the phone and called the ambulance,” Aiden said.
The first paramedics arrived within minutes, followed by a MICA (intensive care) crew.
Val had suffered a grade five brain aneurysm – among the most severe brain bleeds.
“They actually said to Doug that whoever called the ambulance, if they didn’t call it that quickly he would have been dead,” Aiden said.
But his actions are even more impressive than on first glance.
An ambulance took his father to hospital about 21 months ago after he suffered a brain haemorrhage.
He was in intensive care for two weeks but died.
It was tough for Aiden to see another man taken away from his home in an ambulance. “It was not very good,” he said. But he kept his mind on the task, and said it felt good to help someone.
“An ambulance came to our school and told us about staying calm and stuff and what to do,” he said.
Aiden’s mum Lyndy Chiaruttini said the incident had affected Val’s short term and long term memory but he could control his limbs and speak.
“He’s got movement of everything which is good, he’s just a bit confused,” she said.
“He squeezed our hands, then went back to sleep.”
The 59-year-old Glen Waverley man is in Monash Medical Centre.
He was back in intensive care last Thursday 18 August after doctors operated to insert a stent.
But Val is lucky. He hadn’t planned to work that day, and would otherwise have been home alone.
“He would have died, had he been home alone,” Ms Chiaruttini said.
“It’s worked out for the best.”
