Birmingham stabbing victim’s mother meets boy saved from bleeding kit

A Birmingham woman whose son died after being stabbed in 2017 met a boy who was saved by using one of the bleeding kits she helped bring to the UK.

Lynne Baird launched the kits in aid of West Midlands Ambulance Service in 2017 after her son Daniel was killed in Digbeth.

One kit was used on 12-year-old Ralphie Hartrey, also from Bristol, who injured his leg in a freak accident in December. The two met via video chat, where Ralphie thanked Lynne.

“I felt amazing when I heard about it,” Ms Baird said. “(Daniel) would be very happy to know that lives were saved because of him.”

Ralphie had been playing in a parking lot when he tripped and fell on a curb, cutting his leg below the knee.

Nick Jordan, who runs a nearby jiu-jitsu club, used the kit on the boy. It had been installed just three weeks before.

“The first thing we did was put a tourniquet on. The chances of him bleeding were pretty high,” Mr Jordan said.

Ralphie later underwent surgery, had 30 stitches and used a leg brace for a month.

Thanks to the intervention, he made a full recovery, and returned to playing soccer and socializing with his friends.

The meeting between Lynne and Ralphie is the first time Mom has met someone who was saved from the bleed kits.

“I still think, even now, we wouldn’t have those kits if that hadn’t happened to Dan,” Ms Baird said.

The kits were developed after she founded the Daniel Baird Foundation, which campaigns to make them widely available.

These include items such as a tourniquet, bandages and a foil blanket and were initially launched in the West Midlands.

They are now available across the region as well as in Glasgow and London.