A 12-year-old boy has been hailed a hero for saving his blind brother’s life during his first epileptic fit.
Quick-thinking Joshua Taylor sprung into action after fourteen-month-old sibling Taylor Jones started to have a fit while in the bath.
He kept his family calm as they started to panic and called an ambulance to the family home.
He then stayed with Taylor, who is registered blind and has West syndrome, which manifests itself through infantile spasms, throughout the ordeal and in hospital.
Mum Fran Jones, of Bodmin, Cornwall, says she believes his heroic actions saved his young brother’s life.
She said: “He had his first ever epileptic fit in the bath on Saturday and it was terrifying.”
“Joshua was absolutely amazing. He went and got my phone all by himself and called 999. At the time I was shouting and he was keeping me calm.
“He was so calm and if he wasn’t there then the circumstances could have been very different.
“He was like a different child, so calm. He was amazing.
“Joshua insisted on coming to the hospital even though we didn’t really want him to and he was brilliant there too. He wouldn’t leave Taylor’s side.
“He really did save Taylor’s life and the ambulance crew, doctors and main consultant commended him.
“I never expected it from him and he saved Taylor’s life more than I did. The ambulance crew were fantastic too.”
With medical intervention Taylor eventually came around and was discharged in the early hours of Sunday.
This meant the family were even able to catch a flight to London, landing by 8.30am so Taylor could attend his next appointment at Great Ormond Street.
The family has thanked everyone who has helped and also praised Taylor’s bravery.
Fran said: “We as parents have to support Taylor in the best way possible to try and stimulate his vision for any hope or glint that he may get some sight in the years ahead.
“Taylor has now been registered as a blind child in Cornwall – but we call it severally vision impaired as we don’t want to use the term ‘blind’.
“This has been very hard as it has made everything very real.
“But, as we say, Taylor was born into this world not knowing any different, but what he will know is that he has the best support within family and friends and will certainly have the best life possible.”
Recalling Taylor’s difficult journey, Fran described how he was born in November 2018 and a short while later they noticed his eyes weren’t fixing and following correctly.
He underwent a scan at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital in London and Taylor was found to have cerebral vision impairment.
This meant that his brain and eyes weren’t connecting, and a further MRI scan revealed Taylor was completely blind.
Fran added: “In the meantime he kept having spasms and one was witnessed by a therapist from the council during a home visit.
“She emailed the consultant and said he needed more tests and that was when it was confirmed as West syndrome.
“Taylor was put on steroids for a few weeks to reduce the spasms but it hasn’t worked as well as it should have.