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'You don't just keep walking'Sep 12, 2011 (The Dominion Post - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- The timing was right. If Riley Bowers, 12; Kyle Crabtree, 11 and Michael Curtis, 10 hadn't asked their parents for a couple of extra hours downtown that Thursday in July, they might not have been crossing the South High Street bridge when a woman fell, hit her head and had a seizure on the sidewalk. If Crabtree hadn't recently gotten a cell phone for his birthday, they might not have been able to call 911 for the woman. But they were. Morgantown City Council honored Bowers, Crabtree and Curtis during last week's City Council meeting for their quick-thinking, saying it possibly saved that woman's life. Each boy was given a plaque -- recognition for being Good Samaritans. The boys weren't expecting any awards, they said, and they were a little surprised they were getting so much attention for making a phone call. "You don't just keep walking when you see something like that," Bowers said. Curtis added, "I guess it's a big deal because we're kids still." The Dominion Post was unable to find out who the woman was, and the boys said they didn't know her. The boys started their 15 minute walk to downtown Morgantown at about 10 a.m. July 28. It was the second trip without parents for Crabtree and Bowers, and the first for Curtis. They got lunch at Subway, browsed through UniversiTEES, went to a pet shop to play with kittens (they tried for snakes, Crabtree said, but couldn't hold them because their parents weren't there) and then to Dairy Queen. Cool Ridge was the last stop -- Bowers wanted to get a bonsai tree and said he waited because it was such a hot day. They were walking along the South High Street bridge when they noticed a woman -- a little ways ahead of them and on the opposite side of the street -- fall. "She was carrying a lot of stuff," Bowers said. "I thought she just dropped her stuff and I was going to go help her pick it up, but she wasn't getting up. " Crabtree said the woman started shaking then and "I knew she was having a seizure." "I was shocked," Curtis said. Bowers said he reached for his cell phone, but saw the battery was dead. Crabtree made the call. Lianne Crabtree, Kyle's mom, said she was on the phone with her son when the boys saw the woman fall. She was calling to check on the boys, she said -- it was only the second time they were allowed to go downtown by themselves. But Kyle hung up on her. He said he had to go -- a woman just fell and he had to call 911. "I said, 'No, wait, wait...what?' but he'd already hung up," Crabtree said. "I just kept trying to call him back. I thought maybe he was playing some sort of joke." Kyle Crabtree said the 911 operators "asked us a bunch of questions" and he was able to answer them all -- they were on the South High Street bridge, a woman fell, she hit her head, she looked like she was having a seizure and it seemed like she was unconscious. By the time he got off the phone, other adults were gathering around to help the woman, he said, and it wasn't long before the fire department, police officers and paramedics arrived. The boys stayed there until paramedics put her in the ambulance, they said. Cathy Bowers and Sharleen Curtis found out about the incident when Crabtree called to tell them they would be late coming home. "I didn't know what possibly could have happened to make them late," Bowers said. "Kyle told me and I told him to get off the phone with me and call 911. He said he already did." When the boys got home, Bowers said she kept telling them they were heroes. "It's a proud moment in any parent's life," Lianne Crabtree said. Curtis said the boys were brave to stick together. "I was impressed." "They were really brave to stick together like that," Curtis said. Bowers said the boys can be a little ornery and they like to have fun, but when it comes down to it, they're very mature. "These boys have grown up quite fast," she said. City Clerk Linda Little said a city employee brought the incident to her attention, and city administration decided to honor the boys. "It was such an unusual situation," because children were involved, she said. "It was just a really great story." Little said its rare for the city to give out such awards to civilians and it may be the first time children were recipients. According to The Dominion Post archives, the city honored five men in 2000 after they helped three children escape a house explosion in Suncrest. ___ (c)2011 The Dominion Post (Morgantown, W.Va.) Visit The Dominion Post (Morgantown, W.Va.) at www.dominionpost.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |