By Alex Friedrich
Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minnesota)
Copyright 2006 Pioneer Press
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
The sound of moaning woke little Rebecca Olson in the middle of the night.
Sleepy and confused, she climbed out of bed and wandered into her mother’s bedroom — and found her mom on the floor, muttering and only semi-conscious.
Alone and unsure, the 7-year-old Bayport girl called a friend of the family, who called 911.
That Dec. 1 call — and the crucial information Rebecca gave to an ambulance crew — may have saved her mom’s life.
“It felt like a dream,” Rebecca said, looking back on that night. “I was sort of scared.”
Rebecca’s mother, Julie Olson, 42, was having a diabetic reaction. She’d taken too much insulin for the banana nut muffin and milk she’d consumed, and low blood sugar plunged her into a dangerous stupor.
Her daughter didn’t know what to make of it. She had no one to ask; her father died in 2004.
A dispatcher called the Olson house after the friend called 911. Rebecca described her mother: “It’s hard to understand her. ... I think she just doesn’t know where she is, but I don’t know what’s going on.”
Despite her fright and confusion, the girl knew enough about her mother’s condition to help rescuers act quickly. When the ambulance arrived, she was able to tell paramedics her mother’s date of birth, show them where her mom kept her medicine and recall her mom’s medical history — including that she was on dialysis.
That saved precious time and enabled emergency personnel to revive Olson with a glucose shot in her home -- saving a trip to the hospital.
“That’s pretty spectacular for a 7-year-old,” Bayport Fire Chief Scott Radke said. “I’ve been in this for 20 years, and I don’t remember ever seeing anything like this.”
Rebecca soaked up some emergency training — even if she doesn’t know what the word “training” means — from firefighters during a school field trip to the Bayport Fire Department.
“I learned ‘Stop, Drop and Roll,’ and if there’s an emergency, call 911 — all that kind of stuff,” she explained.
In January, the Andersen Elementary School second-grader will receive an award from the Bayport City Council for her quick action.
“I keep telling (Rebecca) I love her and how thankful I am for what she did,” Olson said. “She has always been an awesome girl, but this puts her over the top.”