Facebook friend saves suicidal teen
A girl in America
saw a suicidal comment from a UK
boy on her Facebook friends list, and within three hours he was found and taken
to the hospital for treatment, The
Daily Mail reports
here
Shortly before 11.30pm on the1st April, the 16-year-old boy
wrote: ‘I'm going away to do something I've been thinking about for a while
then everyone will find out'." His friend knew the school he went to but
not his address, so she told her parents, who contacted the British Embassy in Washington. The local Police
had just a name to go on but narrowed the search to eight addresses. Officers
were dispatched to each location, and three hours after the boy had filed his
Facebook message, he was found at home " conscious but suffering the
effects of a drug overdose." He has since been released from the hospital
and "is recovering at home".
Thames Valley Chief Superintendent Brendan O’Dowda praised the
tenacity of those involved on both sides of the Atlantic. ‘It took up
time and effort but it was time and effort absolutely well spent’ he
said.
This story reflects what the US's
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline said in 2007, that peers are often the
first to know when a teen is in trouble, so social networking sites can be a vital
source of referrals to hotlines.