"Can you go and get mummy?"

March 24, 2017 7:03 AM

A four year old boy calls emergency services using his mother's phone to report that she's not breathing. Thanks to the call, things work out well for everyone. Police have released a clip of the call to remind parents about the importance of teaching young children their address and how to use 999 (UK) in an emergency. SLBuzzfeed, with transcript and audio clip of heart-breakingly young boy staying calm under pressure.
posted by RedOrGreen (33 comments total)

A good reminder for everyone. Thanks for sharing. I'm glad everything worked out for this family.
posted by Fizz at 7:15 AM on March 24, 2017

I never realized before, but getting to the emergency dial screen (or entering a passcode) requires a whole lot more cognition than just dialing 999/911 in the pre-cellphone days. I wonder if that's made a difference in kids' access to emergency services? Parents with young kids, do you teach them specifically how to get to the emergency dial feature?
posted by R a c h e l at 7:19 AM on March 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Smart boy.

You can also set up your Amazon Echo to trigger an emergency response that will send a message to an adult if a child uses a trigger word/phrase in front of it.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:23 AM on March 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

I never realized before, but getting to the emergency dial screen (or entering a passcode) requires a whole lot more cognition than just dialing 999/911 in the pre-cellphone days.

Kids these days are born with an intuitive understanding of how to navigate touchscreen devices in addition to the ability to find the most irritating thing on Netflix
posted by beerperson at 7:25 AM on March 24, 2017 [28 favorites]

This news story prompted us to have a helpful conversation with our youngest about how to get help in an emergency. Good stuff.
posted by 4ster at 7:28 AM on March 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Parents with young kids, do you teach them specifically how to get to the emergency dial feature?

Wouldn't surprise me if Roman was already well aware that a thumb-print was what stood in the way of more CBeebies or Pokemon Go.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 7:29 AM on March 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Parents with young kids, do you teach them specifically how to get to the emergency dial feature?

This is the biggest (but not only) reason we still have a regular landline.
posted by anastasiav at 7:36 AM on March 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

We don't have 911 here. My father's building could have maybe been saved if we did. One of the people in the building tried 911, it didn't work, so he drove to the fire hall to let them know. It was a very short drive, but still...

I don't know if there's an easy way for my daughters to reach emergency services. I should definitely get that sorted out.
posted by ODiV at 7:51 AM on March 24, 2017

Previously. The boy calling about his mum breaks my heart. Poor guy.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 7:51 AM on March 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

This is the biggest (but not only) reason we still have a regular landline

Yeah, we came close to ditching the landline a couple of years ago but were persuaded by a friend to keep the landline for this reason. That being said, the nubspawn are a couple of years older since that decision and it would only take a moment to teach them how to access the "emergency" tab from the lockscreen on an iPhone.

Now, leaving the iPhone in a place they could find it (instead of our coat pockets, or whatever other random spot we set the phone down around the house) - that might be the challenge. In short, in my house, it might take longer to train the adults than the kids.
posted by nubs at 7:53 AM on March 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Huh. Yeah, I have no idea if my almost-five-year-old would know how to call emergency services. We don't have a landline. My phone is usually on my person, but not always. I really don't want a landline, as it would be used for literally no other reason but this is something I definitely never really thought about before. Would a cheap flip pay-as-you-go phone left in the same place all the time be a solution here?
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:56 AM on March 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Someone at an old job told me about something a woman with epilepsy set up with her local 911 - she lived alone with a service dog, and wondered how to alert 911 if she had a major siezure. What she did was - she autoprogramed her phone so that every possible option for speed dial went to 911, and then trained her dog to trigger a call on speakerphone by jumping on the keyboard; and further trained him that if someone answered, he should bark. She arranged with her local 911 that if they ever got a call that was just a dog barking, it was at her residence.

According to my coworker, it worked.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:06 AM on March 24, 2017 [35 favorites]

Yeah, I think I'm going to maybe set up that Alexa thing. My kiddo is always with one of us, so I guess I never thought about it, but he needs to be able to get help.

He's big enough to open our phones and ipads now, so that's not as much of a worry, but I think I'll look around to see if I can do a similar and simple thing for our iphones -- like a one button call for help.

Thanks RedOrGreen and roomthreeseventeen, you may have saved a life.
posted by BeReasonable at 8:08 AM on March 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Oh dear. I just upgraded from a dumb phone to a smartphone (not iPhone) for the first time. The kids have been exasperated by my difficulty in learning how to just answer or place a call. ("Mom! You type in html! You can do this!") When they go back to school this weekend, I'll have to find the manual to do it myself. If I can read the small print.
posted by Miss Cellania at 8:11 AM on March 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

In the US, old cell phones without active service plans will still place 911 calls (and networks will still accept them). If it can see the cell tower, the cell tower will accept a 911 call. The FCC says:

The FCC's basic 911 rules require wireless service providers to transmit all 911 calls to a PSAP, regardless of whether the caller subscribes to the provider's service or not.

So save your old cell phones that you no longer have on a plan, leave them on the charger in your kitchen, car, where-ever, and use them in a pinch if you need emergency services.

(The FCC themselves note the one drawback: "If your wireless phone is not "initialized" (meaning you do not have a contract for service with a wireless service provider), and your emergency call gets disconnected, you must call the emergency operator back because the operator does not have your telephone number and cannot contact you.")
posted by introp at 8:11 AM on March 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

I have to admit I'm more impressed that he knew his address than by him knowing how to unlock the phone...
posted by effbot at 8:14 AM on March 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

P.S. you can occasionally test your old cell phones (to make sure they actually work) by calling 611 or your original carrier's equivalent customer service number. You don't have to wait to connect through to a live person if that bothers you. (Nearly all the carriers I've dealt with will let those calls go through even when your service has expired just in case you're trying to call and ask "why has my service expired?" and want to give them some more money.)
posted by introp at 8:15 AM on March 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

I use our address number as the lock screen code for my daughter's Kindle Fire so that she will not have an excuse to forget it. It's another reminder that I'm parenting in a different era than my parents.

We'll be watching this video tonight and reviewing how to call 911 just in case. Thank you for the reminder.
posted by Alison at 8:27 AM on March 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Kids these days are born with an intuitive understanding of how to navigate touchscreen devices...

No, they're not. If my 6yo were in Roman's position, I'd be dead. This is a good reminder that it's past time for me to train her up.
posted by gurple at 9:08 AM on March 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

What, your 4 year old doesn't have her own phone yet?

Stood in a line at the checkout, and watched a kiddo in the seat of a grocery cart the other day in Walmart* first dialing (and fighting with) her sister over the phone and then playing a video game while her mom was getting her taxes done. Was thinking about mom allowing kiddo to play with the phone and how phones make nice detractors for kids, then mom's phone in her purse rang, and she answered.

My youngest won't allow my 12 year old granddaughter to have a cell phone. I may have to report her to CPS.

*forced to shop at Wal-hell because they've run everybody out of business locally
posted by BlueHorse at 9:42 AM on March 24, 2017

My android phone has a button to call emergency when it's locked.

I've read stories about abusive SO's who swipe their partners' thumbprint to unlock their phones while they're passed out or sleeping.
posted by brujita at 11:07 AM on March 24, 2017

You shouldn't need to unlock a phone to dial the emergency number (911 or equivalent). At least in the US, you don't even need a SIM card.
posted by ryanrs at 12:03 PM on March 24, 2017

As an aside to this story: on an iPhone, at least, if you hold down the home button you typically trigger Siri, and can ask her to call emergency services for you. Siri calls the locally appropriate number. Siri will also respond to "Who does this phone belong to?" if you find a lost iPhone, as long as it was set up correctly. (And yes, 911 calls should work from locked phones as well as phones with no SIM cards.)
posted by RedOrGreen at 12:13 PM on March 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Yes, well. When little Roman followed instructions and gave his mum a shake and called out "MUMMY!" that's when I started to cry.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 12:21 PM on March 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

I can't watch that or I will weep. Scared kids are my kryptonite.

I need to figure out how to teach my little kids to call for help asap but the eldest is 3 and definitely not ready to understand the context, even if she'd totally be good with the mechanics of calling. She has her own iPhone (one of our old ones, unlocked and with no data plan obviously) but it's just a toy to her.
posted by lydhre at 12:26 PM on March 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

We didn't have 911 when we lived in Chicago just red stickers on the handsets with numbers for police and fire. I had to call once when mom had a miscarriage and slipped in the blood and knocked herself out. I was almost 3. Mom was really proud of me.

A few years later my little sister had the flu and mom didn't want to take her out in cold weather to pick up my dad at the train station so mom said she'd be back when the hands on the clock were here and there and when she wasn't, my sister called the police who came and played with her in the living room.

I beat my mom home, saw the police car and let myself in very quietly. It was a split-level foyer so nobody could see me but I could hear them and everything sounded ok so I went up the stairs and sis runs to me and tells me mom is not back and one of the cops tells me traffic is really bad. What is my mom driving? No reports of accidents with a green Ambassador. You call us again if she's not back in half an hour.

My parents got back and we didn't tell them until dinner cause we were busy with reruns of UFO. They dropped their forks.

How times have changed.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 12:41 PM on March 24, 2017 [24 favorites]

I can't watch that or I will weep. Scared kids are my kryptonite.

Roman wasn't scared. He was badass!

Note: still wept.
posted by jkaczor at 1:01 PM on March 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

For everyone talking about how hard it is to get to the dial screen on your smartphone, you're doing it the hard way. You just need to hold the button and say "Siri/Google/Cortana, call the police."

Teach your kid to do that and they're set.
posted by Big Al 8000 at 1:24 PM on March 24, 2017

Every now and again, when a situation comes up in a book or on television, I will "quiz" the kids on the proper response/what they would do.

Story about a house fire in the paper? Let's go over the fire escape plan.
Where to meet (under the telephone pole), what to do (stay there, wait for someone to come get you).

Child got left at a subway stop? What would you have done?
Stay where you are, we'll find you, call out my actual name (not Daddy!), if that doesn't work, ask someone for help (look for parents with kids or someone in uniform if possible)

An ambulance drives by the house?
Let's talk about when to call 911 and, importantly, that you won't get in trouble for doing it.
If you think someone is in need of that kind of help and there are no other adults, call 911 and explain it to those adults. Let them decide what is needed.

I think of it like those PSAs that used to air at the end of GI JOE (Knowing is half the battle...).
Even if they get sick of me asking them when you should touch a down electric wire (Never!) or what to do if the house smells like rotten eggs (Leave!), there's a better than even chance that some of it will have sunk in.
posted by madajb at 1:32 PM on March 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

I don't have kids, but I have friends who do, and I'll share this article with them.

When I was pre-school age back in the early 1970s (around age 4 or 5, I think), Mom used to take my older disabled brother and me to a local church's day program for small children. One morning there was an accident: one of the children had tried to cross the street in front of the church by herself and was hit by a car. The staff canceled the program for the day.

Mom hadn't gotten the news, and so dropped us off in the parking lot as usual. We walked to the side door and no one was there, so we waited. And waited. And waited (playing in the parking lot the whole time).

When no one showed up after a while, I told my bro that we should go to the house next door and ask to use the phone. The very nice lady there allowed us inside when I told her what was going on, and then I called Mom. Mom was totally stunned, because not only was she not expecting the call, but she had no idea that I knew our telephone number and address.

As a result of all this, Mom started drilling my brothers to learn our number and address, along with our parents' first and last names. The incident taught me how important it is for little kids to learn that information as soon as they're able. I remember that some of my peers at that age didn't know that their parents' had any name besides Mommy and Daddy.

(I have no idea how I learned our home phone and address, but I have vague memories of being obsessed with our phone book at an early age. The old phone books had a place on the inside cover where you could write your phone # and address, along with phone #s for emergency service--fire, ambulance, etc.--and Mom would always write our info in there. I could read at an early age, so I suspect that's how I learned it).
posted by magstheaxe at 2:42 PM on March 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Thanks for this. Had a talk with my 9 and 5 year olds tonight and then shared this with friends online.
posted by sleeping bear at 9:25 PM on March 24, 2017

Great kid. He was way more articulate than a lot of adults would be. And I love how his mind worked. She's 'dead' because he knows it's more worrying than 'asleep' but at 4 he obviously doesn't know 'unconscious'. And it sure got the operator's attention. I'm very proud of him, bet his family are too.
posted by kitten magic at 2:43 PM on March 25, 2017

In much of the world dialing 112 from a mobile phone will connect with the locally appropriate emergency number on whatever network is available, whether or not you have an account with that network or even a simcard. I have once used this when out of range of my own network and it worked as advertised.
posted by deadwax at 3:52 AM on March 26, 2017