Diabetic mum's plight ignored

Name: Watch: Samaritan aids mum after seeing fear in little boy's face
Uploaded: 2016-05-24T19:36:31+12:00
Duration: 42 s
Description: When a woman saw the fear in a little boy's face as his pregnant mother collapsed onto the road, she knew she had to take action. Mangere mother of four Jade Howard, 30, was stuck in traffic in South Auckland earlier this month when she saw a woman struggling to walk.

By Nikki Preston

NZ Herald·

24 May, 2016 09:21 AM3 mins to read

When a woman saw the fear in a little boy's face as his pregnant mother collapsed onto the road, she knew she had to take action. Mangere mother of four Jade Howard, 30, was stuck in traffic in South Auckland earlier this month when she saw a woman struggling to walk.

One woman comes to rescue while others abuse pregnant mother who fell on road.

A pregnant mum who collapsed on a busy road with her 6-year-old son says she is extremely grateful to the one person who came to her rescue while others yelled at or ignored her.

Theresa Ale, who has type 1 diabetes, said being pregnant with her fourth child meant the warning signs she normally gets when her blood sugar levels are low were masked.

She is pleased her rescuer, Jade Howard, posted a video on Facebook of her struggling across the road because they were both so upset at the response of onlookers.

"The story she put on Facebook, I am sort of shocked at how many people did walk past and it was after school. There were a lot of cars on the road. Parents are picking up their kids from after school and that and everybody just sort of judged me that I was wasted and looked out of it but nobody thought to check if I was okay."

The 38-year-old was crossing Massey Rd earlier this month after collecting her son from Mangere East Primary School when she started stumbling.

"My back was bent and I was holding my back and I was walking. I do remember somebody yelling out from the car 'you wasted bitch' or something. I remember walking past people at the bus stop and they were looking at me. But because I was really weak, I knew if I did something I would pass out."

Instead, Ms Ale tried to focus on her son, who was telling her to keep going because they were nearly at the bus stop.

"I was just hoping somebody would stop. We were in the middle of a busy road. If I could have made it to the doctors a few metres away I would have probably stopped there. But with the way it was I just couldn't hold myself up," Ms Ale said.

Ms Howard was stuck in traffic when she saw Ms Ale about 10 cars ahead of her.

"My initial thought was that she was intoxicated, but as I got closer to her I noticed her little one had her hand and was trying to hold her up, he just looked so worried for his mum. It really pulled on my heart strings," the 30-year-old said.

"I saw cars driving round her, school kids walking past, women walking past. I knew they probably thought that she was drunk, like I did.

"But as I got closer to her and tried to talk to her she was unable to communicate back to me, so I asked the little boy if he knew what was wrong with mummy."

The boy told her his mum was diabetic and needed something sweet. Ms Howard gave her a couple of lollies from her handbag.

"She started apologising, saying she felt like a burden on me ... She didn't want a ride, she didn't want to put me out, but I insisted," Ms Howard said.

"I asked if she wanted to see a doctor but she said she had everything she needed at home."

On the way home, Ms Howard stopped at a dairy and bought her another bag of lollies.

Once Ms Ale got home she was able to have more sugar and felt better.