It’s always great to be prepared for an emergency situation. Whether it’s knowing CPR or the Heimlich maneuver or recognizing the signs of a heart attack, being familiar with how to react immediately can save a life when the clock is ticking.
It’s especially important if you know someone with a medical condition. You need to know what to do—and it’s never too early to learn.
That was the case for one mother who was saved by the most unlikely hero.
Police operators in Liberty County, Texas, got a call on May 30, 2018, that they never expected.
“Liberty County 911,” the operator began.
“Mommy,” the caller said.
It was the voice of a 3-year-old girl.
The toddler’s voice was barely audible, but over the course of a 5-minute call, obtained by KTRK, the operator was able to make sense of the situation as the police tracked the call’s location.
“Is your momma sick or hurt?” the operator asked.
“Right there,” the girl replied. “On the ground.”
According to the Houston Chronicle, police officers went door to door searching for the house until one of them spotted a child playing in the sink through the window.
Inside, they found three young children unharmed—but their 24-year-old mother was unconscious on the floor. She passed out because she has narcolepsy.
The mother, Miranda Craig of Cleveland, Texas, woke up after the officers arrived, and was momentarily panicked.
“I am always scared when I wake up after these spells but to wake up surrounded by police, I was terrified,” she told the Houston Chronicle. “The deputies assured me the children were safe, so I could calm down.”
Since she suffers from the sudden sleep disorder and is known to pass out without warning, she took a big precaution that has saved her more than once:
She taught her young daughter how to call 911.
Her daughter, Dorothy Craig, is just 3, but she’s already an expert at dialing the police when her mom is in danger.
“When she was really little, I taught her how to call 911,” Miranda Craig told KTRK. “And she’s done it for me twice now, and … she’s my little hero.”
It’s always scary for a child to deal with the medical emergency of a parent, but it’s better to be prepared and know what to do. Dorothy may be a toddler, but she handled herself like a pro in this situation.
But hopefully, Craig won’t have too many scares like this in the future.
“These spells don’t happen to me very often thankfully,” she told the Chronicle. “They are stress-related, so I am now taking it easy and trying not to get stressed out.”
A younger hero
Equally heroic as Dorothy Craig, Esmé Hawkins helped her mother in an emergency situation, even though she didn’t dial the emergency service number herself.
The 24-year-old Jasmine Pounsberry, Esmé mother, were the only ones home when Poundsberry suddenly collapsed.
Even worse, as she fell, she hit her head hit on a wall and was knocked unconscious. Her daughter Esmé was only 2 and half years old at the time.
Esmé didn’t dial the UK’s emergency service number, 999, but she did manage to FaceTime her mother’s best friend, Jess, who then dialed 999 and informed them the situation.
“She FaceTimed my friend Jess. Jess asked Esmé to put me on the phone and Esmé said I was on the floor and that’s when she realised what was going on and told Esmé to go and get me a blanket and a pillow while she rang 999,” said Jasmine to DevonLive later.
When the emergency services arrived at Pounsberry’s home in Kensington, Devon, Esmé manged to unlock and open the front door for them.
“She was so brave and I couldn’t believe what she had actually managed to do while I was unconscious. She still looks like a baby because she doesn’t have much hair—but she thinks she’s a 14-year-old,” said Jasmine.
“She’s always seemed very forward for her age—she’s very bubbly, very loud, and very confident. She’s always on my phone but I didn’t think she knew how to make a phone call on her own,” added Pounsberry.
Pounsberry was not feeling well due to an earache, so she took some codeine. However, the earache had developed into a serious infection. In addition, Poundberry was allergic to the codeine medicine, which caused her to collapse.
Grandad Darren Pounsberry summarized Esmé’s action in one sentence.
“She’s a little hero. My daughter was knocked out cold, my two-year-old granddaughter was the only one home,” said Darren Pounsberry.
