RESCUE DRAMA: Retired social worker jumps into tarn to save babies

Robert Sutcliffe

TWO babies who were seconds from death after their pushchair plunged into a tarn in West Yorkshire were saved when a woman who has never learnt to swim jumped in and rescued them.

Georgina Swale was walking by Yeadon Tarn yesterday morning, admiring a mother feeding the ducks with her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter and the twins, who were strapped into their pram.

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After the 60-year-old walked past them she heard the mother scream for help as the babies – just a few weeks old – slipped into the water.

Mrs Swale, a retired social worker, said: “I had just passed the entrance to the Leeds sailing club and was looking at this idyllic sight of a young mum feeding the ducks with her children in the sunshine – they were all having a lovely time – when I heard this scream.

“I turned back and I just jumped in – I didn’t have time to think. The children were strapped in and it was a very heavy pushchair to try to turn round.

“Three men came running, they were really helpful and we started getting the pram out of the water.”

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The rescuers and the young family then faced a traumatic effort to rescusitate the infants before the arrival of emergency medics.

“We all ran into the sailing club and I blew into the mouth of one of the babies who had turned blue and laid it on one of the benches,” Mrs Swale said. “Blood was coming out of the baby’s mouth. It was very traumatic and the mother was in a terrible state.

“Fortunately the blueness started to go and a fourth man came to help with the resuscitation before the Yorkshire Air Ambulance arrived.

“The ambulance crews were wonderful with the mum and did their best to calm her down. It was a terrible, terrible ordeal for that poor lady.”

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A spokeswoman for West Yorkshire Ambulance Service said: “We got the call at 10.34am and sent two ambulances, a manager and a rapid response vehicle to the tarn. One of the babies was taken to Leeds General Infirmary by air ambulance and the other one was taken by road.’’

The Yorkshire Post understands the two babies were not seriously hurt by their experience.

Leeds City Council has launched an investigation into the incident.