Lajes pharmacist saves 8-year-old Portuguese girl

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Olufemi Owolabi
  • 65th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
LAJES FIELD, Azores --  "I believe fate put me in the place I needed to be that day."

This is what Thomas McKendrick said regarding his presence at the scene of an incident, where he helped save the life of an 8-year-old Portuguese girl on Terceira Island, Azores, Aug. 7.

McKendrick, a U.S. civilian pharmacist assigned to the 65th Medical Support Squadron, saved Marta from an untimely death after she fell about 20 feet off a platform of the pool onto the large rocks below, hitting her head.

McKendrick was accompanying his neighbor's children to a swimming hole in the local area. That day, according to him, the children were trying to decide which of Terceira's swimming holes they would go to. As fate would have it, they finally decided to go to Quatro Ribeiras.

While enjoying the afternoon, McKendrick was alerted by one of his neighbor's children, he was needed immediately. She simply told him to hurry, and that someone needed help.

"When I arrived there, Marta's mother was crying and holding her," said McKendrick. "Everyone was just looking."

But McKendrick, who had worked in an emergency room, had Emergency Management Training, and gone on many emergency runs when he was a volunteer with the fire department in Statham, Georgia, knew exactly what to do.

Realizing that any delay could be disastrous, he quickly responded, after gently parting his way through the bystanders.

When he arrived at the scene, he noticed that Marta's lips were turning blue, and she was losing consciousness. "No one recognized what was happening to her," he said.

"When I got to Marta, she had a large cut on the head and was going into shock," he added. "I worked with her for about 15 minutes before the local ambulance got to her."
 
He applied an emergency neck brace with a towel reversed around Marta's neck. He poured some water on her head wound to wash out the dirt and pieces of rock.

"I helped stop the bleeding on the child's forehead and stayed with the child until the paramedics arrived," McKendrick said.

McKendrick collected some towels and wrapped Marta up.

"I started rubbing her lower extremities to bring the blood back up," McKendrick said. "I just did not want her to go into shock."

According to Marta's mother, Sandra Raposo, if McKendrick had not acted promptly, the child would have died on the way to the hospital.

"I am very thankful for the support and kindness of 'Doctor' Thomas for being there at the right time," Ms. Raposo said in Portuguese through a translator, Senhor Manuel Martins, 65th Air Base Wing.

Marta was taken to Angra hospital for treatment.

A few days after the incident, McKendrick, with his neighbor, Paula, and two of her children, Letecias and Soraia, visited the young girl at the local hospital, where she was receiving treatment for other injuries sustained during the fall.

"We took her a Teddy bear and flowers," McKendrick said. "We discovered that Marta also had a lacerated liver and a broken left wrist, plus cuts and bruises all over her body. But she was alert and talking to me."

They also visited Marta again with a big bouquet of balloons. Ms. Raposo explained to them that Marta's right kidney wasn't working. Despite her tears, she was still saying "thank you" many times to the Lajes pharmacist for his heroic action, and for him taking the time to come back and see Marta.

"I was only Marta's angel for the day... I am not a hero," said McKendrick. "I only did what I have been trained to do, because God put me where I needed to be on that day."