Two young trick-or-treaters have helped save an older woman who fell in her Melbourne East home.
While out on the hunt for sweet treats, grade six students Jake and Roy approach the Ferntree Gully unit on Tuesday, where 82-year-old Esma O’Neill lives, when they heard her cries from inside. Ms O’Neill had fallen inside and badly injured her leg which left her stuck and unable to move.
She had been stuck for about 20 minutes when the boys called out to her and quickly jumped into action.
The primary school students followed Ms O’Neill’s directions and located the spare key to her home. The boys gave her a pillow to stay comfortable and called an ambulance while Roy stayed with the grandmother of six to keep and Jake ran to get help.
“I heard someone calling out for help, and I said, ‘Are you okay?’ And she said, ‘No, I’ve fallen over, and I can’t get up’,” Jake told 7NEWS.
Roy described their experience as “a bit scary”.
“We weren’t even going to go down to the units,” he told The Project.
“At that point, I was scared because it’s never happened before.”
Ms O’Neill was taken to hospital, where she received surgery on Wednesday for a fractured femur and will stay until she’s recovered. The boys plan to visit her when she returns home.
Her son Dean was thankful to the two young heroes, telling 9News that both he and his mother were thankful for their actions.
“Just to have the presence of mind to do something like that I can’t say enough or describe enough how happy [we are] and so proud,” he said.
“They’re ripper boys to do that sort of thing.”
Outside of their Halloween good deed, Jake and Roy collected about two full buckets full of sweet treats by the time they returned home.
