A firefighter has been reunited with a three-year-old boy whose life he saved after the child was thrown through a car windscreen.

Ethan Blackburn needed 260 stitches and nearly lost his life four times because of the horrific head injuries he suffered in an accident last month.

Assistant Divisional Officer Walter Moore, 46, was off duty and driving to a meeting when he came across the car crash near Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, on November 20.

The trained medical technician gave life-saving care to Ethan who had to wait 35 minutes for an ambulance to arrive before taking him to Middlesbrough General Hospital.

Ethan's mother, Rebecca Mitchie, 20, of Loraine Walk, Newton Aycliffe, was full of praise for the firefighter's assistance.

She said: "If it wasn't for him, Ethan wouldn't be here today. I feel as though I owe him everything.

"Ethan's recovery has been remarkable as he had skull fractures, he was scalped and his eye was hanging out.

"This will be a special Christmas with him being here. We were prepared for the worst, we thought he wasn't going to make it.

"He is my Christmas present this year."

Ethan was yesterday walking and talking as he was shown around a fire engine at Teesside International Airport where ADO Moore works.

The boy's grandfather, Ernie Wilson, 40, of Heatherburn Court, Woodham, Newton Aycliffe, said: "Ethan was on death's door. The ambulance took 35 minutes to get there and he definitely would have died if it hadn't been for Walter."

ADO Moore was today beaming as the little boy ran around the fire station compound at the airport.

He said: "It is a lovely Christmas present for me to see him here. "At the roadside I thought he was going to go but I kept calm and did what I was trained to do and he's here today.

"The first thing I saw was this little boy lying there on the road. I just went into automatic mode. I have been to some nasty things before and I knew his life was on the line. My main objective was to keep his airways open.

"He nearly went four times I'm just relieved I helped save him."