A hero ten-year-old girl who helped save her mother’s life by calling 999, told the operator ‘I don’t want to lose my mum, I love her so much’.
The heartbreaking call was shared by the East Midlands Ambulance Service, after the youngster, Phoebe Gibbs, received an award for a bravery.
Phoebe phoned 999 after her mum Leanne, 41, collapsed in a bathroom of their family home in Whetstone, Leicestershire.
The level-headed youngster had remembered what her parents told her to do in an emergency, and calmy told the operator her mother’s symptoms.
In the recording, Phoebe is heard explaining: ‘She was shouting for me and then suddenly I saw, she looked like she was dead.
‘But luckily she is not dead, she is just hardly breathing. She’s moving her eyes hardly, I think she might be unconscious.
‘She’s moving her head, she’s moving her hands, she’s breathing. I can see her moving.
‘Her belly is moving weirdly though. Like it’s going in and out and it’s really weird.
‘I don’t want to lose my mum. Her eyes keep opening and closing every time I touch her. She’s holding my hand.’
When asked if Leanne is still awake, she replies: ‘I don’t know, mummy squeeze my hand.’
Paramedic Samuel Brewin and technician Joe Carey arrived at the scene soon after and were met by Phoebe waiting outside for them.
She led the crew to her mum, who was showing signs of a serious infection, including low blood pressure and a high temperature.
Leanne was taken to Leicester Royal Infirmary where, after several months, a bout of pneumonia, antibiotics and many trips back and forth to the hospital, she has finally recovered.
On Friday East Midlands Ambulance Service presented Phoebe with a bravery award at a school assembly.
Recalling the moment she saw her mother on the floor, she said: ‘Mummy was pale with her eyes fixed wide open and she looked like she wasn’t breathing.
‘I put my hand on her chest and my ear to her chest to check. I then rushed to get the phone and called 999.’
Phoebe offered advice to other children like herself: ‘Always go with that little voice inside of you and go with what you believe in your heart,’ she said.
‘If something’s not right, then ring 999 straight away.’
Leanne calls Phoebe her ‘earth angel’ and credits her daughter with saving her life that day on August 3 last year.
Looking back, she said: ‘I remember waking up on that Thursday morning not feeling very well and knowing something wasn’t right.
‘I was very dizzy, weak and had pains in my stomach. Next thing I knew, I was waking up on the bathroom floor with Phoebe and the ambulance crew by my side.
‘Myself and my husband Andy have always tried to teach Phoebe from a very young age about an emergency, calling 999, knowing her address and all birth dates too.
“We feel that it is extremely important to keep talking to your children, to go through certain scenarios and what to do.
‘Phoebe has always been such a caring, happy, empathetic child with such a loving soul. She is a very special little girl.
‘I can’t thank everyone enough who helped that day, from the call handler who took Phoebe’s call, to the crew who helped me.
‘I don’t know what I would have done without them.”
Joe, who nominated Phoebe for the bravery award, said: ‘Phoebe was very helpful and calmer than most adults we attend in similar circumstances.
‘She was waiting for us outside when we arrived and led us straight up to her mum in the bathroom.
‘Despite being very upset, she was able to tell us exactly what had happened and she even had the presence of mind to lock the dogs away before we arrived.’
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