Student on African mission saves girl’s life

Trainee medic Tom Dowsett was helping to make a film promoting the charity work of a group called Light in Africa in Tanzania when a child was rushed in with a blocked windpipe.

The seven year-old called Sophia had swallowed a toxic ball-shaped berry the size of a conker and was in danger of suffocating.

Her family could not afford to get her to the nearest hospital so she was taken to the orphanage.

Mr Dowsett leapt into action, giving cardiac massage continuously during a 50-minute high speed car journey and managing to keep the youngster breathing until they reached the hospital.

She was then taken into surgery where the hard-shelled plant was removed successfully.

Mr Dowsett said: “It was a traumatic experience for everyone involved. We were constantly trying to keep the child responsive.

“The road was very bumpy and the car was flying over the bumps. We raced through police and immigration checkpoints without stopping. Three times during the journey we thought she had given up and then with increased stimulation from us she took a gasp out of nowhere.”

Mr Dowsett has just started his fourth year of medical training after taking a year to study clinical sciences at the Leeds Institute for Molecular Medicine, a research institute within Leeds University’s School of Medicine.

He has been volunteering with Light in Africa – which cares for sick, abandoned and disabled children – for three years, helping to raise £40,000 through bike rides from John O’Groats to Land’s End.

Mr Dowsett said he was committed to continuing his charity work. “I will definitively be going back. I would love to see the children again and see how Light in Africa is giving them the life they deserve,” he said.