Fresher honoured for saving confused OAP who wandered out of hospital
The pensioner was lost on a busy road after having heart surgery
Jack CummingsA kind-hearted first year is set to be awarded for saving a confused elderly woman from walking into a busy road.
Victoria Floyd-Ellis, 22, will get a national honour for helping the OAP who walked out of a cardiac unit after just receiving heart surgery and onto a busy dual carriageway.
The Cardiff medical student spotted the pensioner and drove her back to hospital.
She has won a Royal Humane Society certificate of commendation for her actions.
First year medic Victoria thought something was wrong she saw an elderly woman walking in the road
Victoria told The Tab: “I’m just really overwhelmed – it’s something I wouldn’t think twice about doing and I’d do it for anyone.
“It was back in February and I was driving home late at night up a dual carriageway I could see a lady stumbling into the road walking in the central reservation.
“There’s not much in the area so there was definitely something off.”
After getting out the car to check on the woman, Victoria realised something was wrong.
She added: “I asked if she was ok and could immediately see she was confused and didn’t know where she was.
“The lady told me she’d come from the hospital. I spoke to her for about 10 minutes then took her back – she was freezing.
“When I got there I found out she’d had heart surgery two days before and was supposed to be in hospital.
“She was suffering from dementia, that’s why she was confused and disorientated so she should have been in the cardiac care unit.
“The woman had walked about a kilometre from the hospital on a really busy main road on a dual carriageway.”
Victoria (let) will be awarded the Royal Humane Society certificate of commendation
Speaking on why she stopped the help the pensioner get back to Bridgend’s Prince Of Wales Hospital, Victoria said: “I think it’s just how I’ve been brought up that we all just look after each other.
“That’s what got me into medicine rather than the other way around.”
Victoria is set to be given her award later this year when she returns to uni in September.
She said: “I’m so pleased, excited and really proud actually.
“That evening the family asked who brought her in, but nobody knew.
“They got in touch with the local radio station who mentioned it on air, and my friends heard and sent in my telephone number.
“Then the lady’s family sent me flowers, and since the incident I’ve met with the lady’s granddaughter Lisa.”
Victoria said the pensioner’s surgery went well and she has now been moved to an elderly ward.
The fresher also won the praise of Dick Wilkinson, secretary of the Royal Humane Society.
Dick said: “Given some of the things you hear about these days, I think a lot of women would think twice before stopping in circumstances like this.
“However, Victoria did not hesitate and in view of the treatment this lady had been undergoing it may well be that her ‘good Samaritan’ act saved her life.
“Quite apart from the obvious danger to her health from the temperature and the fact she had undergone heart surgery, she was also in a confused state next to a busy dual carriage way.”