Schoolgirls save woman, 76, from drowning
(Najamuddin Ghanghro, Karachi(original from Larkana))
A group of quick-thinking
Melbourne schoolgirls have risked their own lives to save an elderly woman who
was drowning in Melbourne's Yarra River.
Clarissa Ryan, Lucy Ackroyd and Lucre Moscardo leapt to the 76-year-old woman's
rescue when they saw her trip and fall into the Yarra River on the opposite
bank.
The 16-year-old Melbourne Girls' College pupils raced across a bridge and down
the bank to assist the woman who was lying face down in the water.
In a combined effort, the teenagers managed to pull the elderly woman to dry
land, but she was struggling to breathe.
"She was blue in the face and her breathing was really shallow. She was
gurgling. I was so scared, but we held it together," Lucy told Seven News
reporter Nick McCallum
The teenagers administered first aid they had learned at school until police
arrived.
"It was just shock and the realisation that if we weren't there she could have
died," Clarissa added. "Fate has worked that we were in the right place at the
right time."
The elderly woman is now in the Alfred Hospital in a stable condition.
It is believed she has no family and is a nursing home resident.
Now the self-confessed trouble makers will be nominated for a bravery award.
"They have done a fantastic job," said Inspector Steve Frost. "They have
basically saved her life, there's no doubt about it."