Cambridgeshire army cadet, 14, entered 'panic mode' before saving dad's life
Hannah Williams reacted before paramedics took over
A 14-year-old Cambridgeshire army cadet has told us what drove her on to save her dad's life after he had an epileptic seizure.
Hannah Williams was speaking to her mum when her dad came home early one day in May because he was feeling unwell.
"I thought nothing of it because it's happened before; I got home, he was chatting in the kitchen, he looks a bit peaky, but he seemed alright," Hannah said.
Hannah was chatting to a friend on the phone before she heard a loud bang.
'I went into panic'
"My sister screamed 'mum, mum, dad's having a seizure', so I sprinted down the hall," she recalled.
"He was lying face down on the carpet; I wasn't sure if he'd broken his nose, cut his head, fallen into the chest of drawers.
"I just went into panic mode thinking 'is he going to die?'"
Hannah, whose dad was diagnosed with epilepsy when she was four, said she hadn't seen him have a seizure before until this point.
She then used training she learnt around three months earlier with the Cambridgeshire Army Cadet Force (ACF), as she checked her dad's airway, placed him into the recovery position and monitored him before handing over to paramedics.
"Knowing exactly how to do it, how to use a defibrillator, I don't think I could make peace with the fact it would be me who'd have to do it if the ambulance crew didn't arrive," Hannah said.
"It was almost the drive of not wanting to have to do CPR on my own father that kept me going 'you're okay, dad'."
"We've got a seizure sheet in the kitchen that runs us through how we need to respond; I've seen simulations in random TV shows I've watched, but nothing could've prepared me for witnessing an actual seizure."
Training for students
Hannah now wants schools to give more focus on delivering first aid training courses to students in the hope that more people know how to react in an emergency.
"Schools are busy places; if teachers aren't at hand and a student has a heart attack, any emergency, those couple of seconds between students arriving and the teachers could be the decider whether that person lives or dies," she added.
Hannah says what happened to her dad has had a "profound effect" on how she treats epileptic seizures and that she is now "constantly alert for the warning signs".
Alison, Hannah's mum, would also like to see more first aid training for schoolchildren and the ACF teaming up with schools to help deliver this.
“We are really proud of Hannah; we inspire young people and bring out their potential, encouraging confidence and leadership which in this case helped prevent a tragedy," Lieutenant Douglas Stuart, from the ACF, said.
"Hannah's experience of this situation, and knowledge of her own newfound abilities, will surely continue to help her as she moves into the challenges of adult life.”