Local heroes: Billesley teenager saves neighbour with mouth-to-mouth

Nov 9 2010 by Emma McKinney, Birmingham Mail

JAMES Power may be only be 14 years old but that didn’t stop him saving the life of a neighbour when she stopped breathing.

The teenager, from Billesley, used skills he had learned only a week earlier to help the woman, who was suffering from a chronic asthma attack.

“My neighbour was foaming at the mouth and had turned blue,” said the Wheelers Lane College pupil.

“I was very frightened but I knew I had to help so I started to give her mouth-to-mouth and Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation.

“I was worried I was doing it wrong but I knew I had to do something otherwise she would die.”

James kept the 39-year-old neighbour, who does not wish to be named, breathing by continuing CPR for five minutes until an ambulance arrived.

She was taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Selly Oak and was released two days after the incident in August.

She has since made a full recovery.