Women battled to save Gareth's life

Oct 9 2009

Women battled to save Gareth’s life

A QUICK-THINKING mum and a dental nurse helped save Gareth Steven’s life as he lay helpless in a Prestwick car park with blood pouring from his stab wound.

As Martha Clark rushed to his aid, Gareth looked up and told her: “Tell my mum and dad I love them.”

The 44-year-old explained to Kilmarnock High Court that she was standing at the back door of her Boyd Street home when she was alerted to the incident in her street.

Ms Clark said: “My son came and told me that something was happening outside, someone was being attacked.

“I went out the front door and heard someone shout ‘help me, help me.’

“The shouts were coming from round the back of the clinic so I made my way along Boyd Street.

“I saw him lying there on the ground and he was bleeding. He said he’d been stabbed. I knew he worked in the jewellers just down the road.

“He said ‘Help me, tell my mum and dad I love them.’

“I sent my son back to get towels because he was bleeding from the side. And I sent my other son into the clinic to get an ambulance.

“His dad appeared just after that and his mum came when my son went to get her.”

Louise Morrison, 39, was working as a dental nurse in the Boyd Street clinic that night.

She told the court: “We heard shouting and the gravel behind the clinic being disturbed. Initially we did nothing because we always heard people round the back of the clinic, it wasn’t unusual.

“Then I heard a sort of wailing noise and someone asking for help.

“At that time, two young boys came into reception and asked us to phone an ambulance because someone had been stabbed.

“I went out the fire exit at the back and saw a male lying on the gravel. He was lying on his back and he was bleeding heavily from his side and from his head.

“We returned into the clinic and got gloves and some oxygen. We stemmed the flow of blood from his wound and administered oxygen.

“We had towels and swabbing from the clinic to put added pressure on the wound.”

Ms Clark and Mrs Morrison stayed with Gareth and his parents until paramedics arrived at the scene.