12-YEAR-OLD RESCUES NEIGHBOUR

It was just another Saturday afternoon for Ruaan van Rhyn when he heard a scream that would change his life.

Ruaan was standing in the kitchen with his mom after playing rugby that morning. He “heard some kind of scream”.

At first, he wasn’t sure what it was. “I stayed quiet and listened to where the sound was coming from, and if it was someone screaming.”

The second time the screaming was clearer, and his mom also heard it.

“I heard a woman scream something like, ‘Help! Help me!’. That’s when I thought something was wrong.”

Ruaan and his mom ran to the garden wall, looked over and saw their 83-year-old neighbour in the pool screaming for help.”

Ruaan’s mom was unable to get over the wall, but he jumped over and pulled his neighbour out of the pool all by himself.

“When I turned her onto her side, she started to vomit. She didn’t know much about what was going on around her. She started to talk, but it didn’t make much sense.”

After getting a blanket from the house to warm up the elderly lady, an ambulance was called.

Ruaan said his older brother did a lifesaving course and told him what to do when someone drowned.

Image credit: Head Topics