Lancaster men hailed as heroes after saving teenager’s life

The actions of Neil Troughton and Simon Doherty helped save the life of 19-year-old Kieran Shelvey, who has no memory of the incident, which happened near Middleton.

Kieran had been staying with his family at their caravan at Ocean Edge and was on his way to see a friend when he had a seizure in Middleton Road and banged his head.

Neil and Simon, who work at a residential children’s home in Overton, were driving along when they noticed Kieran.

“We saw Kieran shaking in the middle of the road and decided to stop,” Neil said. “When we got up to him, he was bleeding from the head and there was a pool of blood.”

Another driver had attempted to call for an ambulance but his phone had cut out so Neil rang instead while Simon put Kieran in the recovery position and they tended to his head wound.

Paramedics arrived within minutes to take Kieran to the Royal Lancaster Infirmary.

“We thought we had done our good deed for the day and went back to work, thinking no more of it,” said Neil.

Kieran was in a coma and on a life support machine before his mum Claire found out what had happened.

Her husband Mike was in Turkey, sorting out their new holiday home, and frantically tried to get a flight back.

“It was horrific, nothing prepares you for that situation,” said Claire, who had been celebrating her birthday with her family just the day before.

Kieran’s condition became so grave that he was transferred to the Royal Preston Hospital where he had a four-hour operation to remove his skull.

“We were told that he’d be lucky to get through the operation and even if he did, that he could be in a vegetative state,” Claire said.

However, just 20 days later, Kieran walked out of hospital and says he now feels back to normal.

“He’s amazed all the medics but they did say that without the quick thinking of Neil and Simon, they wouldn’t have been able to do their work and Kieran wouldn’t be here,” said Claire. “They saved his life.”

It wasn’t until one of Neil and Simon’s colleagues noticed that Claire was trying to contact them via social media that they realised how serious the situation had become, and they then had regular updates on Kieran’s condition during his hospital stays.

Kieran is now back at his family home in Salford where he’s having speech and occupational therapy and is due to see a neuro psychologist in October, as well as regular visits from the neurological team.

His skull will be rebuilt with titanium in a few months.

Kieran had his first seizure in May, out of the blue, and has been on medication for epilepsy since July.

On Saturday, Neil and Simon received gratitude and thank you gifts from Kieran and his family when they met up.

“It was good to see him doing so well,” said Neil. “I don’t see us as being heroes, we just did the right thing. It’s not in my nature to drive past someone in danger and that will never change.”