'˜Kind Samaritans' praised for helping injured pensioner

Moira Stoole explained how her sister, Joan Miller was on her way to the town’s bus depot on Saturday morning (January 28) when she slipped on a kerb, fell and gashed her head.

“She’d gone down to catch the bus and as she was stepping onto the pavement she slipped and hit her head and cut it badly. She was bleeding quite profusely,” Moira explained.

“There were some passengers waiting to catch the bus and they all came to her aid. Among them was a nurse who helped clean her up. They also phoned for an ambulance and luckily one man recognised her and asked for her phone so he could phone me to come down.

“When I got there she was already in the ambulance and I don’t know who the kind people were that helped her, but I would just like to acknowledge the kind Samaritans that did help her and the two young paramedics in the ambulance, Peter and Michael, who were fantastic. They checked her over thoroughly and then took her to Daisy Hill Hospital to be stitched up.”

Moira and Joan, who are both aged in their late 70s, are originally from Zimbabwe.

Moira moved “home” to the place of her father’s birth around 20 years ago, while Joan, who lives in the Legion Court sheltered housing scheme, made the same move around nine years ago.

Staff at the Accident and Emergency department were able to use medical adhesive to ‘glue’ the wound on Joan’s head.

“She has a very black eye, the side of her face is swollen and she’s very embarrassed about it all. But thankfully she didn’t break any bones or anything so we are very grateful for that.

“She’s back home and she’s very happy and very grateful to everyone who helped her,” Moira continued.

“So many people are so quick to complain about things and I would just like to publicly thank these kind Samaritans. It was just so kind of everybody because she was all alone when it happened.

“A lot of people would just walk away and leave you lying there, but they all rallied round her and they were fantastic,” she added.