‘My baby saved me.’ Hero 5-year-old uses Alexa after Pennsylvania mom suffers seizure
At first, Natalie Neal couldn’t make out what her grandson was trying to say.
“I thought he was laughing or joking, and it turns out he was crying,” she told Philadelphia station WPVI, recalling the frantic phone call from 5-year-old Tyrion. “I’m telling him to calm down and he told me he couldn’t wake his mom up. So, of course being her mom, my heart kind of fell to the ground a little bit.”
Neal had programmed her phone number in an Amazon Alexa assistant for her grandson a week earlier so he could call her anytime. Looking back, she says it was a “smart” decision after Tyrion used the virtual device to save his mother’s life, the news station reported.
The boy was at home with his mom, Jasmine Neal, when she suffered an epileptic seizure and lost consciousness on Sept. 20, the Courier Times reported. Tyrion had heard his family talk about his mom’s seizures, but that day was the first time he saw her suffer one, the newspaper reported.
Springing into action, he turned to Alexa to call his grandma, who was about an hour away.
“As a parent with a child who has epilepsy, who lives on her own, that’s a call I didn’t want to get because it could mean anything,” she told WPVI. “It could literally mean anything, so the first thing I had to do was realize he had my child’s life in his hands ... so I told him what I was going to do before I even did it, which was call 911.”
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Neal told the Courier Times her daughter began having seizures in December. She “seized and blacked out” while driving once, she said. No one was hurt.
Approximately 3.4 million Americans are living with epilepsy, a neurological disorder that causes “recurrent, unprovoked seizures,” according to the Epilepsy Foundation. The condition is fairly common and can be hereditary.
Neal kept her grandson on the line as she spoke with a 911 operator, WFTV9 reported. Relaying her instructions, Tyrion was asked to check if his mom was still breathing. He also rushed to unlock the front door so emergency crews could get to his mother, according to the outlet.
Jasmine Neal was taken to a nearby hospital and stabilized. She soon learned of her son’s heroism after regaining consciousness, the Courier Times reported.
“My baby saved me,” she said.
