A YOUNG hero saved his grandfather’s life after an electrical black-out caused his oxygen to stop working.

Sam Hendry was staying at his grandparents’ home in Neilston, with his sister Hannah, when a fault on a sub-station caused properties throughout Barrhead and Neilston to lose power in the early hours of Sunday, July 14.

The quick-thinking nine-year-old heard bleeping on grandfather Joseph’s oxygen machine, prompting him to alert his grandmother, Linda, as the 63-year-old struggled to breathe.
And Joseph has since hailed his grandson as a ‘Godsend’.

He told the Barrhead News: “We were all in bed as it was quite late into the morning. My wife sleeps in a separate room from me as the oxygen machine is quite noisy.

“The next thing I knew, I jumped up and realised I wasn’t getting any of my oxygen. 

“At the time, I went into a panic and tried to get out of my bed – but I just collapsed onto the floor. I was trying to shout out, but I couldn’t as I had nothing.

“I could hear a noise in the hall coming towards my room and it was Sam.

“He had heard the bleeping on the oxygen machine and he must have jumped out of his bed, came into the hall and found me quite distressed – he woke up my wife to let her know I was having a problem.

“She then came running through and managed to get me onto a separate oxygen cylinder and I got to breathe again.

“If Sam wasn’t there to find me, I would have died. Without a doubt, he saved my life.

“Thank goodness Sam and Hannah were staying with us that night because if he hadn’t had been there, I wouldn’t be here.

“I must admit, I am really proud of him. He was an absolute Godsend and he stayed calm when we were all panicking.”

Sam’s dad, Craig, added: “Sam is beaming about how he saved my father’s life - he’s telling everyone about it. We’re so proud of him.”

Scottish Power confirmed that most customers were without power for around 30 minutes from 1.40am due to a fault in one of the local substations.

A spokeswoman said: “There was a fault causing an interruption to local supply around the area just before 2am on Sunday, July 14. The majority of customers were back on within half-an-hour, with the rest of customers were on just after an hour.

“We would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

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