Mother of stab victim meets boy saved by bleed kit
A Birmingham woman whose son died after being stabbed in 2017, has met a boy who was saved through use of one of the bleed kits she helped bring to the UK.
Lynne Baird launched the kits with help from West Midlands Ambulance Service in 2017, after her son Daniel was killed in Digbeth.
A kit was used on Ralphie Hartrey, 12 and from Bristol, who injured his leg in a freak accident in December. The pair met over video chat, where Ralphie thanked Lynne.
"It felt amazing when I heard about it," said Mrs Baird. "[Daniel] would be really happy to know because of him, lives have been saved.”
Ralphie had been playing in a car park when he tripped and fell onto a curb, cutting his leg open below the knee.
"I knew it was bad, because I just looked down and saw a massive hole in my knee," he said.
Nick Jordan, who runs a nearby jiu-jitsu club, used the kit on the boy. It had been installed just three weeks before.
"The first thing we did was put a tourniquet on. The chances of him bleeding out were quite high," said Mr Jordan.
Ralphie later underwent surgery, had 30 stitches, and used a leg brace for a month.
Thanks to the intervention, he has fully recovered, and is back playing football and socialising with his friends.
The meeting between Lynne and Ralphie is the first time the mum has met anyone who has been saved by the bleed kits.
"I still think, even now, we wouldn't have those kits if that hadn't happened to Dan," said Mrs Baird.
The kits were developed after she set up the Daniel Baird Foundation, which campaigns for them to be made widely available.
They include items such as a tourniquet, bandages and a foil blanket, and were originally launched in the West Midlands.
They are now available across the region, as well as in Glasgow and London.
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