‘The first-aid lessons that saved my brother’

A boy of ten saved his brother’s life using first-aid skills he learned on a school visit to a hospital just days before.Louis Edwards was in his bedroom watching a video with his brothers Bradley, eight, and three-year-old Jake, when the toddler swallowed a commemorative coin.

Jake was fighting for breath so Louis ordered Bradley to fetch their mother.

But when Jake began to turn purple, Louis realised there was no time to waste.

He put Jake over his knee and slapped him on the back four times.

Jake coughed up the coin – about the size of a 50p piece – just as his mother Rachael and father Nick arrived in the room to take over.

Yesterday his family, from Chester, and teachers praised him for his cool thinking.

Mrs Edwards, 33, said: ‘Bradley was screaming hysterically when he came running downstairs, saying that Jake had swallowed something and wasn’t breathing.

‘When we burst into the room, Louis was still hitting Jake’s back and he was really purple.

‘Then Jake vomited and brought the coin back.

‘Louis just said it was a good job Jake had thrown up at that point or he would have had to do the fifth slap in the stomach, which he had been shown at the hospital.

‘I was shaking like a leaf but Louis was quite calm about it.’

Mr Edwards, also 33, added: ‘It is lucky he was there because Jake was in some difficulty.’

Apart from shock, however, Jake was fine after his ordeal.

Louis had been to the Countess of Chester Hospital with 50 other pupils from Woodfield primary as part of a programme to ease their fears should they ever need treatment.

During the visit, they were given life-saving advice, including what to do if someone was choking.

Mrs Edwards said: ‘He obviously remembered everything and I’m so glad he did.’

Diane Kennedy, his headteacher, said: ‘We are very proud of Louis for his quick thinking.’