A good news story

THREE-YEAR-OLD Finlay Cavanagh is a little hero.

The Coorparoo toddler has been credited with saving the life of playmate Jorge Koch.

Quick-thinking Finlay alerted adults that his friend was being strangled in a freak playground accident.

After taking their bikes for a spin, the two were playing underneath a timber fort in Coorparoo’s Majestic Park, when Jorge, also three, got his helmet stuck between two platforms.

Their mothers, Marin Simpson and Daisy Koch, were supervising their other children on equipment nearby when Finlay came running over screaming.

“He was yelling ‘mum, mum Jorge’s hurt himself’,” Ms Simpson said. Ms Koch said her son “had turned blue” when she found him dangling off the ground by his helmet’s chin strap, unable to breathe.

While nearby parents phoned the ambulance, she resuscitated Jorge with mouth-to-mouth.

“It was horrendous. The most horrifying thing that has ever happened in my life,” she said.

“He was a bit dopey for about 20 minutes.

“He was pretty quiet for a couple of days after.

“I wondered if he was OK he is fine.”

When the situation was no longer life-threatening, ambulance officers arrived in about 10 minutes to assess Jorge, before letting the boys have a look around the vehicle.

Ms Simpson said the officers inspected the play equipment and believed the incident was simply ``a freak thing’’.

The proud parent said her son’s actions were rewarded with a meal every three-year-old dreams of.

``He had lollies for dinner that night,’’ she said. ``We’re so proud.

``He isn’t even four and having the know-how to recognise something was wrong, we’re so proud.’’

The friends of two years returned to the playground last week for the first time since the August 4 incident, playing as though nothing had happened.

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