Three manikins, a man in the road — and the sixth Beatle a city took 18 months to paint
A 15-year-old in Nottinghamshire spent £60 on resuscitation manikins and then used them for real on a stranger in the road; in Toxteth, a charity has just painted Lord Woodbine — the sixth Beatle Liverpool stopped mentioning — three storeys high.
Ethan is 15 and lives in Mansfield Woodhouse, in Nottinghamshire. He wants to be a paramedic. 1
This summer he spent £60 on resuscitation manikins, so he could teach other people CPR for free.
Two weeks after they arrived, he was kneeling in the road doing compressions on a man he had never met.
The man on Ley Lane
It was about 14:30 on 18 September.
Ethan was walking home from a gardening job when he saw a 75-year-old man slumped over, "half in the road and half on the pavement". 1
The man was unresponsive and making a rasping sound. That is agonal breathing, and it usually means the heart has stopped. 1
A woman was already on the phone to 999. She did not know how to do chest compressions, so she was glad to hand over. 1
Together they moved him onto flat ground, where compressions work better.
An off-duty carer from King's Mill Hospital arrived, then a teacher from a nearby primary school. The three of them took turns. 1
"It was adrenaline like never before," Ethan said. "But I knew I had to stay calm." 1
Then the paramedics came, and with them a defibrillator. The machine found a shockable rhythm.
Why he bought them
Ethan got interested at 11, helping to care for his grandparents. Last year he did a one-off CPR course with East Midlands Ambulance Service. 1
He thinks teenagers hang back because it feels awkward to put your hands on someone else. 1
He also wants people to know about the Sarah Act: the Social Action, Responsibility and Heroism Act 2015. 2
In England and Wales, a court weighing a negligence claim must consider three things.
Was the person acting for the benefit of society? Did they show a predominantly responsible approach to other people's safety? Were they acting heroically in an emergency to help someone in danger? 2
The Act does not grant immunity. It tells a court what to weigh.
The odds, and the family
Resuscitation Council UK is blunt: fewer than one in 10 people survive a cardiac arrest outside hospital in the UK. 3
It also says 80% of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests happen at home. In the East Midlands, its survival figure is one in 13. 1
The man Ethan helped does not want to be named while he recovers. His daughter, Erica, does not mind being quoted. 1
"As a family, we are so grateful for the bravery that Ethan showed," she said. 1
Robert Gladwin, head teacher of The Manor Academy, said the school would look at paying for more pupils to learn life-saving skills. 1
"Quite often young people get a bad reputation," he said, "but actually, this shows we generate students who have a real community value." 1
The wall on Hillaby Close
In Toxteth, in Liverpool, a terraced gable end now carries a face three storeys high.
Beneath it, painted from a photograph, are seven people on the steps of a war memorial at Arnhem. 4
The face is Harold Adolphus Phillips, known as Lord Woodbine. 4
He was a Trinidadian calypsonian, steelpan player and promoter. He arrived in England in 1948 after serving in the Royal Air Force, as part of the Windrush generation. 4
He led Lord Woodbine and his Trinidadians and the All-Caribbean Steel Band, and carried calypso and steelpan to wider audiences. 4
With the club owner Allan Williams he promoted the Beatles before they were famous. In 1960 he drove them to Hamburg and performed alongside them. 4
People called him the forgotten sixth Beatle. He preferred modest living to cashing in on their fame. 4
He and his wife Helen died in a fire at their home in Toxteth in 2000. He was 72. 4
Eighteen months, five walls
The mural was commissioned by Mandela8, a Toxteth charity, and painted by the Liverpool artist John Culshaw. 5
It is the fifth in a series of Liverpool 8 figures: Howard Gayle, Liverpool's first black player; the photographer Leroy Cooper; the swimmer James Clarke; and Nelson Mandela. 6
"This mural has been 18 months in development," said Sonia Bassey, who chairs Mandela8. 5
Stephen Nze, an ambassador for the charity, grew up knowing him as "Woody", or "Mr Woodbine". 5
"This mural is about more than celebrating one remarkable individual," he said. "It is about reclaiming a piece of our shared history." 5
Woodbine's daughter Carol Phillips said the mural was for "the whole family of Liverpool 8, not just our family". 4
It is being unveiled at 2pm today, backed by the city region's mayor's fund, Liverpool BID, Northern Roots and Riverside Group. 5
If you want the half hour Ethan had, start with Resuscitation Council UK's Restart a Heart campaign. Mandela8 lists its other four walls. 36
What stays with me is the handover. A paramedic taught a boy; the boy taught some scouts; a stranger's chest was pushed by three people walking past. A family kept a photograph for 26 years, and a charity spent 18 months deciding it deserved a wall.
References
- 1
- 2Social Action, Responsibility and Heroism Act 2015
legislation.gov.uk
- 3Home | Resuscitation Council UK
resus.org.uk
- 4
- 5
- 6Community Murals
mandela8.org.uk
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