Security staff praised for saving life of choking youngster

Shopping centre staff in Hartlepool have been praised for saving the life of a four-year-old boy who was choking.
Middleton Grange Shopping Centre Manager Mark Rycraft.Middleton Grange Shopping Centre Manager Mark Rycraft.
Middleton Grange Shopping Centre Manager Mark Rycraft.

A quick-thinking 11-year-old ran to find the security staff when she realised the youngster was choking in Middleton Grange Shopping Centre.

The tot was inside the shopping centre, near the Victoria Road entrance, when his frantic mum started shouting for help and people rushed to her aid.

Niamh Bromage, 11, who ran for help when a little boy was choking.Niamh Bromage, 11, who ran for help when a little boy was choking.
Niamh Bromage, 11, who ran for help when a little boy was choking.
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Kelly Bromage, 38, was standing with her daugher, Niamh, 11, a pupil at Eldon Grove Academy, near the Subway shop when she heard the cries for help on Thursday morning.

She said: “I had taken Niamh to the doctors and we had called in the shopping centre.

“We heard the woman shouting ‘he’s choking’ and when I turned round to look at Niamh she was running in the opposite direction into the main area of the shopping centre, then she reappeared with two security men.

“They ran to the little boy and started first aid on him and managed to dislodge the piece of food that was stuck in his throat.

Niamh Bromage, 11, who ran for help when a little boy was choking.Niamh Bromage, 11, who ran for help when a little boy was choking.
Niamh Bromage, 11, who ran for help when a little boy was choking.
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“They went back and got on with their other duties as if it was all in a day’s work.

“I really wanted to praise them for the way they acted because I don’t think they get the recognition they deserve.

“I didn’t know they knew how to perform such first aid and if it wasn’t for them it could have been a very different outcome.

“I’m really proud of Niamh as well in that she was so quick-thinking to go and find them, because I didn’t know what to do.”

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The mum of the little boy, wrote on Facebook that should would like to thanks everyone who helped her and her little boy.

She said: “We need to send a big thank you to all the people in Middleton grange this morning who came to help my four year old son who was choking.
“People of Hartlepool thank you for saving my son’s life.”

Mark Rycraft, manager of the Middleton Grange Shopping Centre, said: “It is great to be thanked and it is good for the team as well.

“We are very proud of the training they receive in first aid.

“They deal with all sorts of incidents and deal with them in a very professional manner.”