"My 4-year-old daughter saved my life yesterday..."
This happened yesterday and I'm still processing it all. I'd just dropped my wife off to pick up her car from the mechanic, then came home with my two girls who are aged 2.5 & 4. We got inside the house, I remember trying to put my youngest down for a nap but she was fighting it so we came back out into the lounge room.
At that point I remember having a really sudden, really strange sensation come over me like really loud white noise / my head was exploding. I remember thinking "oh shit I better call the ambulance," typing the emergency number into my phone, then nothing. Absolute black-out. The next thing I remember is groggily seeing some police & ambulance come through the front door.
I was extremely disoriented and had no idea what was going on. The cops sat me down on my couch, asked me a few questions, then ambulance starting attending to me. I had no idea where my wife was so I asked if I could call her. She answers the phone and doesn't understand why I'm asking her where she is, as it had only been about 20 minutes since I'd dropped her off.
One of the cop then talks to her and explains what has happened, she rushes home and is extremely distraught when she gets home seeing me with a drip in my arm being taken by the ambulance to hospital. One of the ambo's thinks I had a mini-stroke but they later rule that out at the hospital when my brain CT and other tests come back fine.
The doctors now believe I had a seizure brought on by low phosphate due to my intermittent fasting diet. Apart from being very sore & tired today and having some nasty bite marks on my tongue I should recover fine.
Later when I regain more sense, I find out that my eldest daughter picked up the phone that I'd dropped on the ground and spoke to the operator. She told them that "daddy wouldn't wake up" and that I was on the floor panting and breathing funny, then also managed to tell them our actual street address (we always talk about that). She stayed on the phone until cops and ambo's arrived.
The fact that there were young children unattended with an adult in distress meant they got here super quick. My wife had actually gone shopping after picking her car up and might not have been home for another hour, so if the emergency services weren't notified I could've been on the ground for a lot longer with the girls all by themselves.
The presence of mind shown by my daughter has absolutely blown me away. I'm just so proud of her, and thankful of what she did. Luckily it wasn't a stroke but if it was, she could well have saved my life. She knows she did the right thing, she is very proud of herself for "talking to the lady on the phone", but I don't think she understands the full extent of it.
I don't know how to explain or show to her what she did was actually bloody amazing... I guess as she grows up more and hears the story she will understand how truly awesome what she did was.
Here's what people had to say to OP:
Juniper_Moonbeam said:
I used to be a children’s librarian and if kids needed their card number they had to verify the account info to get it. The number of 8-10 year olds that didn’t know their parents' phone number or their street address was depressingly high.
I always made a point to say I would give them a prize if they could come back and tell me both parents full names, a phone number for mom or dad, and their street address.
Kids would drag their parents into the library to get a prize from me after memorizing the info. Parents were always surprised when their kid didn’t just know this info the first time. I think some parents just forget to teach it!
din0saurr said:
Your daughter is a product of great parenting. You should be really proud of yourself and your wife for raising such an amazing little girl. I’m glad you’re doing alright and everything worked out. Thank you for sharing.
International_Win375 said:
Our Fire Service gives children recognition for calling 911 during emergencies. Give them a call. Your daughter deserves recognition from emergency services. It will last a lifetime.
[deleted] said:
You brought them into this world, and they are the reason you are still in it. If that ain’t poetic, I don’t know what is
Erulastiel said:
Kids are truly smarter and more in tune with the world around them than we give them credit for.
LuckyMuckle said:
This is one if those stories that will go down in your family history. For generations the children will teach their children. Kudos and good health to you all!
sailordoll said:
This is so beautiful, you raised a really great kid and I’m sure her little sister is gonna be the same way. Glad you and your family are well OP!
UPDATE:
it's getting too hard to reply to all your kind messages, but I am reading them all and they mean a lot, so thank you. Yes I definitely agree my daughter is a little hero! If we had the back yard for a pony as has been suggested, I would probably do it, but I think she will also be perfectly happy with a week of ice-cream after dinner!
Also for those telling me to stop fasting - I already have. Back to old fashioned calorie counting. Fasting pretty easy for me and was working really well in terms of dropping weight but I'm not willing to sacrifice my overall health, so I will have to do it the hard way.
Also I am on phosphate supplements for a week to get that back to normal and will be following up with more tests etc with our family doctor tomorrow. Thank you all again for the kind words :)