Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Hero of the Week: Liam Loesch



















This week’s hero is Liam Loesch who demonstrated great composure and maturity, well beyond his ten years, when his mother Dana Loesch was injured by falling down the stairs in their St Louis home.

This is how Dana described the incident and Liam’s actions during the aftermath (NOTE this story is paraphrased for brevity and clarity, from Dana’s radio show, by me):

We have hardwood floors in our house and because I am a genius, I decided to wear just my sox and go down our solid wood stairs. As I am going down the stairs; have you ever had one of those whisky tango foxtrot moments, when you are like, what is happening..? Well I happen to look up and my feet are right in front of my face. At this point everything went into slow-mo. I look and I ask myself “why are my feet in front of my face are, they don’t belong there?” Then it hits me, if they are there then they are not on the floor. Then everything surged into real time…and I literally fell down an entire flight of stairs.

I did not hit my head but I did fracture my tailbone… I was carrying a ceramic mug of water that broke. This upset me more than anything else because it was my very first mother’s day gift that Chris [Dana’s husband, owner/producer of Shock City Studios] got at an art fair. Then I realize I am cut up everywhere. I have cuts on my wrists and cuts on my arms. There is water everywhere oh yeah and blood…there was a pool of blood on the stairs, all over the place!

I am home alone with my two boys. My husband was out getting some lunch and was going to be gone about 10-15 minutes. My six year old Ewan was hysterical, screaming and I have tears rolling down my face. I am trying not to freak out, because you can’t be the parent and freak out in front of your kids. So I am like, “ah mommy fell, oh.”

Well Liam, who just turned ten, kicked into Bear Grylls mode and he was like “let me have your phone and I going to call dad I am going to do this…” He got some paper towels. He was wiping up blood. He was like “did you hit your head?” He kept talking to me like he knew exactly what to do. I momentarily forgot how I had nearly split myself in half. I could not believe how he was so methodical, he was so take charge and he was trying to calm Ewan down who was hysterical and talking about how much he hated stairs

 

I am a strong believer that we need to recognize children when they exhibit the kind a behavior that should be admired and emulated. Liam's actions are just this kind of action. Congratulations Liam. And thank you for exhibiting such composure and maturity. Had your mother's injuries been more severe you actions could have meant the difference between life and death. Luckily they were less severe but your actions were no less heroic.

Dana Loesch is the host of the Dana Show, St Louis Tea Party co-founder, Big Journalism Editor in Chief and a CNN contributor)

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