Grateful family seek hero stranger who saved child’s life

Manurewa schoolboy Kharlo-Rae Pirini-Kiel, 6, who was pulled from under a car and revived by passers-by. Photo / Supplied

The family of a 6-year-old boy hit by a car in a South Auckland driveway want to find the mystery soldier who revived their badly-injured child.

As little Kharlo-Rae Pirini-Kiel recovers in Auckland’s Starship children’s hospital from extensive injuries, his aunt is hoping to track down a man known only as Matthew who jumped from his car and performed lifesaving CPR on her nephew.

“Someone told me his name was Matthew and that he has just graduated from the army. We are so grateful for him and are trying to find him,” said Rae Pirini-Kiel.

“He was driving past the street when the incident happened. He stopped and rushed to my nephew, who was not breathing, and performed CPR.

“We don’t even know how to give CPR. He came at the right time.

“He saved my nephew that day and my sister wants to thank him.”

She said the family were too busy with emergency services on Tuesday afternoon when the accident happened and missed the chance to thank him at the time.

Pirini-Kiel said Kharlo was playing with his cousins by a pool at the front of the house when a car backing out of the driveway struck him.

The Manurewa schoolboy ended up pinned under the car, with neighbours running to his rescue.

It took 12 people to lift the car off him and pull him out, she said.

A neighbour told the Herald he was sleeping in his house around Tuesday lunchtime when he heard screaming and yelling.

“I rushed out to see what happened.

“Everyone was saying ‘he’s under the car, under the car’,” he said.

“The 6-year-old boy was being pulled out from under the car when I reached there. Me and one other passerby in his 20s stopped to give the boy CPR because he was hardly breathing.”

The front yard where Kharlo-Rae was playing near the children's swimming pool. Photo / Akula Sharma

The resident said the driver had backed out of the driveway near trees where the boy was understood to have hidden while playing.

“The driver must not have seen him,” he said.

Another resident who rushed out after hearing the commotion said police and ambulances arrived on the scene quickly.

“It was about 400m away from my house. I heard screaming but by the time we went out, the police and ambulance were already there and emergency services had blocked that part of the road.”

Kharlo-Rae was taken to hospital in critical condition.

Pirini-Kiel said over the past few days his condition had improved.

“He is stable now. He is out of ICU and has moved to the orthopaedic ward at the hospital.

“He has suffered five broken ribs, a few other broken bones.

“He can’t breathe properly at the moment and his lungs are finding it hard to work,” she said.

A police spokesperson said they were alerted to a report of a vehicle collision involving a child about noon on December 27.

The incident happened at a residential address on Coxhead Rd in Manurewa, police said.

The Serious Crash Unit attended the scene.

An Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter spokesman said the child was struck by a moving vehicle in a driveway.

“He was trapped and the vehicle was lifted off by bystanders.”

St John sent two ambulances to the scene and a rapid response vehicle.

An Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter paramedic and doctor accompanied the boy in an ambulance to Starship.