Brave nurse Jeannette Rose told today how she saved a four-year-old French boy called Thomas from drowning while on holiday in Malta.

Now Thomas has sent her a thank-you in faltering English.

The youngster had stopped breathing when he was lifted from the hotel pool and Jeannette, 52, saved him with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

She said: "When I got to him he was not breathing and he had no pulse. I felt horrendous. I have been nursing for 20 years and this is the first time I have had to do something like this." Thomas was in the children's section of the pool but he took his armbands off and climbed over the wall into the deeper pool. He had almost drowned when bystanders pulled his body from the pool.

Jeanette, of Liddiard Close, Wantage, was on holiday with husband Ron at the hotel in St Paul's Bay, Malta. She said: "Everyone was standing around not knowing what to do. He was blue. I gave him mouth-to-mouth and cardiac compressions. It took ten minutes for his heart to start again and 20 minutes for him to start breathing." Thomas was rushed to hospital where he was put on a life-support machine and kept in intensive care for two days. He was later taken back home to Senlis, France, from where he signed a postcard, written for him by his mum.

The card read: "Thank you for all. Thomas is very well, exactly like before the accident. He stayed for two days in intensive care and three days in paediatrics. "He was confused but he is well. He does not remember the accident."

Jeanette is county nursing officer for St John Ambulance and a practice nurse at the East Oxford Health Centre.

Story date: Monday 18 October

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