ELIZABETHTOWN — Heroes are not judged by their age, they are considered heroes because of their overwhelming acts of courage, bravery and helping someone without reguard to their own personal safety.

On Saturday, August 29, at around 9 a.m. an eight-year-old girl from Dublin helped and guided authorities to the scene of an automobile accident that she and her grandmother were involved in. The accident occurred east of Elizabethtown on NC 87 Business. When the vehicle swerved off the road it came to a stop in a heavily wooded area and was not visible from the highway.

Sharon Samuels, a teacher at Plainview School knows the family very well and brought in the details of the crash to the Bladen Journal.

Kieara Porter and her grandmother Janice Harvin were on their way to pick up their cousin Stella, when Harvin suffered a heart attack while driving. The incident sent the vehicle off the highway at a high rate of speed and into the woods.

According to Samuels, Porter suffered a head and an arm injury, but neither injury deterred her from exiting the vehicle through a window and walking through the woods to the highway. She spotted a car parked across the road and began screaming for help. A lady got out of her vehicle and crossed the street towards Porter.

Porter told the lady her Grandma was in the car, and asked her to call her mother with the number Porter gave her. The lady tried once and then called 911. After several attempts Porter’s mother was reached.

In the meantime, rescuers had to cut trees out of their way to get to Harvin’s vehicle. According to Samuel’s story, Harvin had to be revived twice on the way to Bladen County Hospital where she was later transferred to New Hanover Regional in Wilmington. Harvin died three days later as a result of the heart attacks, not the vehicle accident.

Samuels, who has worked with children for many years in the Bladen County School system, said, “Some children will cling to an adult when they are hurt or the child has been through a traumatic incident. Due to the bravery of this young hero, Kieara Porter, she and her Grandmother Janice Harvey did not lay, possibly waiting for days to be discovered. Kieara was also, brave enough to give authorities enough information for them to locate the vehicle and Grandma.”