Hero police officer saves five-year-old girl's life in front of distraught parents

Pc Melissa Allen-Turner performed chest compressions on the little girl in the middle of a west London street
Life-saver: Pc Melissa Allen-Turner is reunited with five-year-old Edlyn Marques
Sebastian Mann22 July 2015

A hero female police officer has told how she saved the life of a five-year-old girl after she stopped breathing due to an asthma attack.

Pc Melissa Allen-Turner, 24, grabbed the limp child from her distraught parents and began performing chest compressions in the street after darting to the family's aid when members of the public raised the alarm.

The young cop, who has been with the Met for about a year and is still in her probationary period, was directing traffic with her colleague Pc Dawn Flanagan on Lady Margaret Road, Southall, on June 23 when they were alerted.

Edlyn Marques's parents had rushed from their home after their daughter stopped breathing but were caught in gridlocked traffic despite a passing driver's offer to run them to hospital.

Pc Allen-Turner told the Standard she didn't stop to think before running after her colleague when she realised something was wrong.

"I was at one end of the road, Pc Flanagan was further away," she said.

"A member of the public came up to her, and then I noticed her run in the other direction.

"I hadn't heard what had been said, but I just ran after her.

"As I was running I lost [my colleague], then members of the public were shouting 'she's in the car, she's in the car' and then pointed to a car that was stopped.

"I looked at the car and I saw the father shouting 'she's not breathing' and pointing at his little girl in the car.

"So I took her out, put her on the curb and started CPR."

Both parents were crying as Pc Allen-Turner battled to revive the child. Within minutes other police officers from a nearby station had arrived at the scene and were offering help.

Not long later paramedics joined them, with police, family and medical crew rushing to hospital so urgently a police officer was tasked with driving the ambulance while medics tended to Edlyn.

Paramedics told Pc Allen-Turner that the girl - who thanks to her intervention made a full recovery - was at "imminent" risk of falling into cardiac arrest.

A few weeks later the modest police officer bumped into Edlyn at a school fete.

Commenting on her heroism, she said: "It feels good to have saved her life, to see her family and to see she's alright. But it falls within the remit of what we do everyday."

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