Ascension : Royal Humane Society Certificate awarded to Karl Yon
Submitted by The Islander (Islander Editors) 04.03.2010 (Article Archived on 18.03.2010)

In January this year, Karl Yon, the son of Glen and Angela Yon, was given an award in response to an incident, which occurred at the White Horse Leisure Centre in Abingdon in Oxford on the morning of the 16th August 2009.

In January this year, Karl Yon, the son of Glen and Angela Yon, was given an award in response to an incident, which occurred at the White Horse Leisure Centre in Abingdon in Oxford on the morning of the 16^th August 2009.

Whilst working as a Life Guard at the Leisure Centre, and also being the duty First Aider, Karl was paged to report to the Centre’s Reception Area. On arriving there he discovered that a two year old boy who had collapsed outside had been brought into the Centre by his grandmother. When Karl arrived on the scene the child had been assessed by the Manager and was found to have no pulse or breathing. In a busy public area, with the grandmother crying and visitors and other staff members getting distressed, Karl remained calm and focused and took control of the situation. He took the limp child from the grandmother, put it on the floor and commenced his resuscitation procedure whilst the Manager contacted the paramedics.

Karl successfully resuscitated the child and by the time the Ambulance arrived some ten minutes later he had the child conscious and breathing again. His actions undoubtedly saved that young child’s life.

Karl has also been praised by his manager who said:

“We are very proud of him and his character, both as a person and as a hard working, reliable colleague here. He's an extremely respectful, polite and professional young man and he performed exceptionally well when giving the child emergency resuscitation. He did everything required in an extremely competent way. Karl should be proud of his prompt & professional emergency response - acting without hesitation to resuscitate a two year old child in view of the casualty's distressed grandmother.”

As a result of his actions Karl has been awarded a certificate from the Royal Humane Society. It reads:-

“At a meeting of the Committee of the Royal Humane Society on 15^th October 2009, it was resolved unanimously that the humanity, promptitude and skill shown by Karl Yon in having on the 16^th August 2009, restored a child to life entitles him to the Resuscitation Certificate of the Society which is hereby awarded.”

Congratulations to Karl on his achievement.