On Thursday, February 15, 2018, shortly after 5:00 PM the Fire Commissioners of the Southern Manatee Fire Rescue District will be honoring an 8 year old girl for saving the life of her grandmother by calling 9-1-1 and providing them with her grandmother’s address and medical information about the emergency. This recognition will be held at 2451 Trailmate Drive, Sarasota, Florida 34243 in the Commission Chambers.
It’s not every day that our 9-1-1 center gets a call and on the other end of emergency line it is an 8 year old. At her grandmother’s house, she immediately recognized that her grandmother was in ill and needed assistance.
In addition to recognizing the emergency, she knew to call 9-1-1 and gave the needed dispatch information as well as the correct responses to the 9-1-1 operator’s questions. When our personnel arrived on scene they found that this 8 year old also was the oldest of 5 other children that were present at her grandmother’s house, and besides remaining calm and in control of these other children she provided much needed medical information about her grandmother’s medical history to our personnel.
Our patient was a diabetic that was experiencing a low blood sugar, she was conscious but not able to respond to anyone. While the patient was being assessed and vital signs being obtained, the 8 year old provided us information about her grandmother’s medications which did include information about the insulin that she takes.
Paramedics were able to restore the patient’s blood sugar and shortly after she became fully alert and surprised by the number of emergency personnel in her home taking care of her and this was all due to her 8 year old granddaughter that knew what to do, she truly is a hero.