"He's not waking up for anything:" 8-year-old boy saves his father's life with call to 911
WAUKESHA -- A tearful call to 911 -- a plea from a child to help his father. That call came from a Waukesha boy -- only eight years old. The father, police said, appeared to have overdosed with his kids in the car.
In a parking lot somewhere in Waukesha, an emergency call was transferred to police. The caller -- a child.
Child: "Over here (unintelligible) my dad, he's dead. He's not waking up for anything."
The boy tried to describe where he is while emergency dispatchers traced the cell phone call. The boy's father was slumped over the steering wheel.
Dispatcher: "Is it just you two in the car?"
Child: "No, all four of us. My two brothers and my dad."
The boy told the dispatcher at age eight, he is the oldest. His brothers are six and four.
Child: "I don't know (crying)."
Dispatcher: "There's help on the way. The ambulance will be there shortly, OK?"
Lt. Kevin Rice of the Waukesha Police Department
Police traced the cell phone to a parking lot owned by the Waukesha School Administration Building.
"A few moments later, a passerby grabbed the phone from the eight-year-old boy and gave a little bit more information that would lead us to believe it was a possible drug overdose," said Lt. Kevin Rice of the Waukesha Police Department.
Passerby: "I'm getting a pulse on him. He's warm and clammy, slumped over. There's three children in the car here, someone should get here soon. That would be great."
"It's pretty remarkable that an eight-year-old would have the knowledge to dial 911 to try and give his location to the dispatcher and actually know his father is in distress. It's quite an amazing little boy that was able to do that and literally saved his father's life," Rice said.
Within two minutes, Waukesha police made it to the scene -- and the father was rushed to a nearby hospital.
Waukesha Police Department
"The real tragedy here is that there were young children in the car at the time when this individual was using drugs," Rice said.
The father's life was saved according to police, but he will face criminal charges.
There is no connection to the administration building in this case. It just happens to be where the father pulled over.