By Madeleine Mathias
Eastern Express Times
FORKS TWP., Pa. — Normally on a Monday afternoon, Tyler Swass would be attending his afternoon kindergarten class at Shawnee Elementary School. But about 3:30 p.m. Jan. 18, he was at home for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
The 5-year-old was playing with his toys. His mother was sitting on the floor watching TV and his baby sister, Aaliyah, 1, was showing off her latest talent - crawling.
Amanda Swass, 26, suddenly fell over on her side, her whole body shaking. The little boy, who loves playing with trucks, reacted in a way that no one expected.
He reached under his mother and picked up her cell phone.
“I just took it and pressed 911,” the brown-haired, brown-eyed boy said as he related what happened that week.
The 911 operator asked the nature of the emergency. “I said, ‘Mommy was shaking,’” Tyler said.
The operator asked if he could talk to her, but Tyler said she “can’t right now. She’s on the floor. She’s having a seizure.”
Tyler couldn’t give the address, but he did know he lived on Lambert Court. When the operator asked him if he could go to the mailbox and get the house number, Tyler said he couldn’t because he wasn’t wearing socks.
But Matt Mowrey - a volunteer with the Forks Township Fire Department and a friend of Tyler’s uncle - heard the call on the scanner while he and some other firefighters were at the station.
“When they heard that Tyler didn’t know the house number but named the street, we knew where Lambert Court was and I had this gut feeling it could be Amanda,” Mowrey said.
When firefighters and Suburban EMS arrived at the Lambert Court home, Tyler opened the door.
“T-Man. That’s what we call him. I said, ‘What did you do?’” Mowrey said. “Your mom had a spell and you called 911. That was pretty neat.”
Tyler said no one taught him how to call 911 or when to do it. He said he learned from watching television.
Amanda Swass, who was taken to Easton Hospital, said she knew nothing of Tyler’s quick-thinking action because she was unconscious. When a member of the EMS crew told her what Tyler did, she said, “I think Tyler is great. What he did was wonderful.”
Tyler said he now knows his house number. But even with all the praise, what Tyler really wanted to talk about were his goals - to be is a karate teacher, a monster truck driver or a skateboarder.
Copyright 2010 Eastern Express Times