A little boy saved his great-grandfather’s life after he slipped into a diabetic coma.
On Saturday 21 July young Aiden Smith from Walsall, England, was visiting his great-granddad Brian Clark when he noticed the pensioner having a hypoglycaemic attack, which left him unable to speak.
But instead of panicking, the primary school pupil rushed to grab Brian’s blood-sugar testing kit after seeing the 73-year-old use it many times before.
When Aiden realised the retired engineer’s blood-sugar levels were dangerously low, he quickly grabbed some jelly babies – saving Brian from a fatal coma.
“I’m so proud of Aiden, he’s so smart,” Brian says.
“My wife was out shopping so it was just us in the house. Suddenly I realised I wasn’t well but I couldn’t move and couldn’t say a thing.
“Aiden had watched me measuring my blood sugar every day so he knew how to use it.
“Then he ran and got the jelly babies and quickly put a few in my mouth.
“He was very calm. It took me about 10 minutes to come around.
“I’m very proud, he really saved my life.”
Little Aiden usually spends the weekends with Brian and his great-grandmother Sandra (70) but on Saturday he was alone with his great-granddad.
After feeding the pensioner, who has had type 2 diabetes for 30 years, two jelly babies and giving him Lucozade to sip on, the six-year-old tested Brian’s sugar level again.
Luckily, within 10 minutes his sugar level had gone up and the great-grandad was feeling much better by the time his wife came home.
“I was really shocked,” Sandra said. “I couldn’t have done much even if I’d known what was happening as I was out of the house.
“Aiden has watched his grandad use the finger-prick tester so many times, so he knew how it worked.
“I’m just so proud of him.”
Aiden – who’s also suffered from asthma attacks – now hopes to become a paramedic.
“He’s never had any first aid training. We’ve all been watching my grandad for years and we just know what to do, so he did it automatically,” said Aiden’s mom, Hayley Farren (27).
“His brain is like a sponge, he absorbs everything.
“I don’t think he even realised how important it was what he did. He saved grandad’s life. He’d definitely be in a coma if it hadn’t been for Aiden.
“When I asked him about it he just said, ‘Mommy, I just knew what I needed to do.’
“I’m so proud of him – for a six-year-old to do all this is a big deal.
“He’s such a sweet, loving little boy. He always thinks about others more than himself.”