A LITTLE boy from Pontypool who injured his arm in an accident at home has thanked the paramedics who looked after him.

Eight-year-old Sam Robinson badly cut him arm when he accidentally put it through the glass pane of a bathroom door at his home on Hanbury Road.

The accident damaged the tendons in his arm and caused an arterial bleed.

Paramedic Steve Banks stayed with Sam, who is autistic, in the ambulance, in casualty and on the long transfer to specialist emergency treatment at Moriston Hospital in Swansea.

Sam's mum Sarah Robinson said: “Sam had an accident and as he is autistic he didn’t know what had happened and he was very distressed."

She said Martin Trainer arrived quickly in the Rapid Response Vehicle and said it looked as though he would need surgery.

Mrs Robinson said the ambulance arrived with Steve Banks and John Beynon and they quickly understood his difficulties and befriended him.

"Steve was really fantastic with Sam. He got on really well with him and stayed with him in the ambulance on the way to hospital and they both waited there with us and helped redress his injury," she said.

Sam had major surgery on his injured arm after the accident on January 5 and the plaster cast has now been taken off.

The little boy recently presented a box of chocolates to the paramedics to say thank you.

Mr Banks, who has now become the little boy's hero, said: "It’s great to hear that Sam’s doing well, he’s a lovely little lad.”