A Porridge Bowl Sliced a 93-Year-Old’s Artery. The Pergola Crew Across the Road Had Tape

Carpenter Josh Sander and his apprentice, Gary Tunbridge, stopped work on a pergola in Gracemere, Queensland, on Monday, Nov. 2, to help 93-year-old Ian Barton, who had cut an artery in his wrist in a fall at home. They made a tourniquet from a dress and tape, and Barton is now stable in hospital.¹

The two men were on the job in a quiet cul-de-sac just before 8 a.m., ABC News reported. “We were just about to jump up on the roof, and we heard a lady across the road start yelling out,” Sander told the ABC.¹

Across the road they found Barton on his back patio, surrounded by blood. He had tripped on the lip of a small ramp while carrying a bowl of porridge. He landed on the bowl, and it sliced the artery in his wrist.¹

A tea towel, a dress and some tape

Sander’s first move was to wrap the wrist tightly in a tea towel. It didn’t slow the bleeding enough.¹

So he sent Tunbridge to the truck for tape and went inside for one of Joy Barton’s dresses to make a tighter wrap. Tunbridge bound the tape firmly over the dress, and the two kept pressing on the wound. The result was a makeshift tourniquet, a tight band that squeezes a limb to cut off heavy bleeding.¹

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“We just ripped in and weren’t afraid to get a bit bloody and it’s turned out for the best,” Sander told the ABC.¹

Waiting for the ambulance

The wait for an ambulance ran more than half an hour, according to the ABC. Sander put it at about 40 minutes. During that time Barton “faded off” a few times, and the pair had to wake him.¹

At one point Barton seemed to be choking. Tunbridge found false teeth lodged in his mouth and pulled them out to keep his airway clear.¹

Tunbridge began his apprenticeship four months ago. “They never said anything about being a paramedic,” he told the ABC.¹

A Queensland Ambulance Service spokesperson said the local Gracemere crew was under significant demand and responded as quickly as it could. “We want to thank the members of the community for their quick thinking and providing care prior to our crew’s arrival,” the spokesperson said in a statement to the ABC.¹

Recovering in Rockhampton

Barton was taken to hospital in Rockhampton, where he had an operation that afternoon and looked much better afterward. He remained in stable condition, and his family hope he can come home within days, followed by a few months of recovery at home.¹

Joy Barton, 89, has been married to Ian for more than six decades. “They saved my husband’s life … I thought he was going to die,” she told the ABC. She also recalled what she told him afterward: “I said to him, ‘Ian, darling, that bloke saved your life.’”¹

The couple’s granddaughter posted a thank-you on social media the next day, and the two tradesmen were quickly tracked down and identified.¹

Sander said it had been a few years since his last first aid course, and the morning has him thinking about signing up for a refresher.¹