Calif. Girl, 7, Saves Diabetic Father With 911 Call
Feb. 22--RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA, Calif. -- A 7-year-old girl thought fast and kept her composure long enough to use her father's cell phone to call 911 as he suffered a medical emergency while driving this week in Dana Point.
The girl, Natalie, had gone miniature golfing with her father and 5-year-old sister and were on their way home when her father started acting strangely behind the wheel.
"He started driving fast and we hit a few bumps," Natalie said. "We started asking him if he was okay and he wasn't answering us."
Natalie's father has diabetes and her parents had instructed her about what she should do if he ever had a diabetic reaction while driving.
She managed to get her father's cell phone out of his pocket while he drove. Once she had it, she used it to call 911. She described her surroundings to dispatchers who managed to figure out where they were.
"As we got more into the call, she told me she saw a bank," said California Highway Patrol 911 dispatcher Diane Hand. "So that led me to believe she was on streets."
Hand and Orange County dispatcher Myra Langdon worked together to get an idea of where the girl, her sick father and her sister were just as Natalie started to cry.
"It was really scary," Natalie said. "I didn't know what was going to happen."
Finally, Natalie's father stopped the car near the intersection of the Street of Copper Lantern and Pacific Coast Highway. When a police officer drew near, Natalie honked the horn to alert him to their location.
Police found the girls and their father and everyone was fine.
"She did an outstanding job," Langdon said.
Copyright 2012 - KTLA-TV, Los Angeles
