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Last month, three 11-year-olds set off on a hike in Cheung Chau, an outlying island of Hong Kong. They were hoping to clear their minds before their exams. Instead, they found themselves in the middle of a real-life emergency.
On February 20, the children were heading towards the North Lookout Pavilion on the Cheung Chau Family Walk. But they spotted a hiker on a staircase near a narrow, less-travelled path. The man had fallen, and his chin was cut and bleeding.
The children, who are Primary Six pupils at Cheung Chau Sacred Heart School, did not panic. Instead, they divided the work of helping the injured stranger.
“At that moment, I didn’t think about being afraid at all. I just thought we should go down and save him first. There was no way we could just watch him lying there and then leave,” Kasey Cheng Hei-tung said.
“We had previously learned some first aid knowledge in general studies, so we knew how to help.”
As the kids spoke with the injured man, they learned that he had hurt his left arm and both of his ankles.
Kenji Chan King-hei called the police right away. Ocean Ip Hing-shing checked a map to find their exact location.
After emergency services were sent out, Ocean ran downhill to guide rescuers to the injured man.
Meanwhile, Kasey stayed with the hiker, trying her best to take care of him by offering him a pack of seaweed for energy and using wipes to clean his wound.
“At first, I thought he might have low blood sugar, so I gave him some chocolate. But he refused it. In the end, I gave him a pack of seaweed,” she said.
The children remained at the scene until they confirmed the man was in the ambulance.
‘Three brave children’
A few days later, the hiker, named Gordon Li, posted on the social media platform, Threads, to thank the trio publicly. He praised their quick thinking and kindness.
“On the day of the incident, I was accidentally injured near the North Lookout Pavilion. There were no other people around at the time. Fortunately, I met three brave children. Instead of just standing by and watching, they immediately stepped forward to help me,” Li wrote in the post.
“What moved me the most was how calm they were while handling the situation. In a very short time, they clearly reported the coordinates on the mountain to the firefighters, allowing the rescue team to quickly locate me and arrive as fast as possible to save me.”
Li said he was impressed by how the children did not panic while helping him.
“This kind of calm response in a critical situation is something even many adults may not be able to do,” he wrote.
Real-world lessons
Kenji, Kasey and Ocean received a merit from their school to recognise their good deed.
Principal Wong Leung-hoi from Cheung Chau Sacred Heart School said he appreciated the pupils’ heroic efforts and connected it to what they were learning in school.
“We can see that the children truly applied what they learned in real life,” he said. “We often teach them that they should help others and learn how to do so properly.”
Through their experience, the students said they hoped more people in Hong Kong would step forward to help others in need.
“We hope people won’t turn a blind eye to incidents like this and will choose to help,” they said.
