5-year-old twins' long walk to save diabetic father

Waitahuna farmer Paul Homer with his twin sons Liam, (left) and Taylor. Picture / Otago Daily Times

Five-year-old twins are being hailed as heroes by their family after they walked 3.5km to raise the alarm after their father, a diabetic, collapsed at the back of their Waitahuna, Clutha, farm.

"Dad went to sleep and we went home to Mum," Taylor and Liam Homer told the Otago Daily Times.

Cara Homer, 23, said she began to worry when her "boys" did not arrive home for tea at 6pm on Saturday.

Her husband, Paul, 35, is an insulin-dependent diabetic and has strictly scheduled meal times.

She called her father-in-law Russell Homer, who lives next door, and he told her if there was no sign of the missing trio in 20 minutes, he would start a search.

Just after 6.30pm, Russell and wife Gaynor met Taylor and Liam on Waitahuna Gully Rd, about 10 minutes walk from their home.

"We couldn't believe it. Here's the two of them walking towards us. They were saying 'Dad's gone to sleep in a big hole, Dad's asleep'," Gaynor Homer said.

Just after noon on Saturday, Paul Homer went to cut a tree, taking the boys with him. He then decided to clear gorse at the back of the farm when he must have had a diabetic "low", Cara Homer said.

She reckoned the boys had stayed with their father for about three hours while he slipped in and out of hypoglycaemia, before deciding to walk home.

Though the boys "did not know the farm, because we don't take them out on it very often", they knew exactly where their father was when they led their grandfather back to him.

The pair had walked out of the gully, over two hills and along a long gravel road, but were able to lead Russell Homer back to the spot where their father was lying.

Her father-in-law, who is also Waitahuna's chief fire officer, told her that without the boys' guidance, it would have taken at least another hour to find her husband, Cara Homer said. In that time Paul could have slipped into a diabetic coma.

A St John Ambulance spokeswoman said that could have happened given the timeframes and Paul Homer's blood sugar level, which when he was brought home read 1 - normal is 4 to 8.

"Those kids deserve a pat on the back."

The last thing Paul Homer can remember is running out of petrol for his chainsaw.

- OTAGO DAILY TIMES