Joanne Beckett has found her guardian angel.
The Barrie woman whose son suffered a serious head injury while on a family hike at the Elora Gorge last weekend has located the mystery medic who might have helped save his life.
“I found him, but he wishes to remain anonymous,” Beckett told GuelphToday late Thursday night.
She said the young man, who is in the military, reached out to her via Facebook Thursday.
“He sent me a beautiful message,” Beckett said.
“I have also spoken with his commanding officer and he will be recognized.”
The guardian angel was rappelling nearby when Beckett’s eight-year-old son Zakaria fell and hit his head on a rock, suffering a 25 centimetre head wound that was bleeding profusely.
The mystery medic, who is based in Alberta but had been at Camp Borden for training, applied a special head bandage and then a compression bandage to help stop the bleeding. He also held Zakaria and calmed him until paramedics arrived.
“He was absolutely amazing,” Becket said.
Paramedics later told her the excellent first aid her son received might have saved him from bleeding to death.
Zakaria is now recovering at home after receiving 25 staples in his head to close the wound.
Beckett never got the name of the man and took to Facebook to try and locate him so she could personally thank him.
Her Facebook post went viral, being shared 16,000 times and receiving 1,700 comments in less than two days.
A GuelphToday story was viewed almost 10,000 times and shared over 3,000 times.
Beckett said she was “definitely overwhelmed” by the response.
Thursday she posted the following:
“I have been contacted by our guardian angel! He is very happy to hear how well Zak is doing and very humbled by all the response.
He wishes to remain anonymous and I hope everyone will be respectful of this. He is a credit to members of the military everywhere.
Thank you SO much for all the efforts of everyone. We would not have found him without all of you. I'm overwhelmed with all the good wishes and information we received. Words cannot convey how grateful we are.”
A comment on the post said the man that helped was a medical technician in the 1st Field Ambulance, which is based in Edmonton.
