Baby saved from death in a ditch

A tearful father yesterday told how he pulled his 10-month-old son from a water-filled ditch and helped bring him back to life after an accident.

Sean McNulty, 31, from Silsden, West Yorkshire, said he thought his youngest son, Joshua, was dead after a crash near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, early on Saturday. He wept as he described how the youngster spluttered back to life following mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and heart massage on the roadside for "what seemed like hours".

Mr McNulty and his family were travelling home when their car left the road and plunged into a ditch. He said he could see that his wife, and two other sons, Daniel, seven, and Andrew, five, had scrambled to safety. But he was unable to find Joshua, who had been sitting in a child seat in the back.

In desperation, he waded in the ditch, calling his son's name. He then heard a passing motorist Samantha Lee, 25, from Lakenham, Norwich, yell that the child was face down in the water behind him.

"I could just see his cardigan and I pulled at it and there he was and I lifted him onto the side," Mr McNulty explained. "I don't know what death looks like but he looked like he had gone. He looked like my Grandma when she died - all pale and blue."

Mr McNulty, a trained first-aider, gave the child heart massage while another passing motorist, Alex Hardy, 31, gave mouth-to- mouth resuscitation. Eventually the child coughed and cried out. "He coughed and all this stuff came out of his mouth and he started crying and I knew then that he was all right and then I just fainted," said Mr McNulty.

He was overcome when asked to describe the moment he realised Joshua was alive. Mr McNulty simply turned to look at his son and said: "How would anyone feel?" Mrs McNulty said her husband was a hero. "He was just amazing. He saved Joshua's life."