Rich and Liz’s story

“We don’t do this for the glory, we do this to help our community”:

It was every parent’s worst nightmare. Gary’s daughter, Izzy, was hit by a car, while on her way home from school and the driver made no attempt to stop after the incident.

Gary said: “The driver chose not to stop at the scene, they did not even have the decency to see if she was still breathing”.

Izzy had suffered numerous injuries, but despite everything she’d been through, managed to make her way home.

There without delay to answer a dad’s call for help.

Once Izzy arrived home, Gary immediately called 999 and two LIVES Emergency First Responders, Rich and Liz, arrived at Gary’s house minutes later.

They weren’t entirely sure what to expect, as Liz explains: “We knew we were going to a road traffic collision incident, so we didn’t know what to expect when we arrived at a residential address.”

Calmly doing whatever they needed to do.

On arrival to the house, Rich and Liz were met by Gary who was understandably relieved to see them. His daughter Izzy was visibly very upset and clearly in shock.

Rich said: “As we didn’t arrive at the scene of the incident, it can be difficult to comprehend what has actually happened as there is no scene to assess. We initially tried to understand exactly what had happened, so we could assess the patient’s injuries.

“My main concern was the injury to her head, but our years of training has also given us an understanding that children compensate a lot for their injuries and illnesses; the worry was that she could also become more severely unwell had to stay in the back of my mind, luckily she didn’t” Liz added.

Rich and Liz talked to Izzy and helped calm and reassure her, before assessing and treating her multiple injuries. The ambulance service arrived later and transferred Izzy to hospital.

Playing a part in a positive outcome.

Gary’s daughter recovered well, despite serious injuries including losing her front teeth, cuts and swelling to her forehead. Members of the community set-up a crowdfunding page to help raise money to pay for dental work Izzy needed from the injuries she suffered. However, whilst they were extremely grateful, Gary and Izzy decided to donate these funds to LIVES and cover the cost of Izzy’s treatment themselves.

Gary expressed how Rich and Liz acted ‘impeccably’ while treating his daughter and did everything they could to help reassure her and the rest of the family.

“The level of care we received made the fact that we discovered they are volunteers, is even more unbelievable”.

Rich and Liz are part of an army of Emergency First Responders who volunteer for LIVES. Rich originally joined LIVES in 2005 with Liz joining in 2012. They are both extremely passionate about LIVES and supporting their local communities and have both progressed to become Level 4 Emergency First Responders, meaning they can attend a variety of different emergencies, including some of the most serious cases, including those involved in road traffic collisions and paediatric emergencies.

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