5-Year-Old Saves Mom (also known as Stephanie Saves Mom) is the third story from the thirteenth episode of Season 3, which aired on January 7, 1992 on CBS. It airs in syndication on Episode 101S: Wing Walker; 5-Year-Old Saves Mom.
Story[]
Shortly after 11pm on May 6, 1991, Mary Jane Westenberg of Dearborn Heights, Michigan, was home alone in her bedroom with her two daughters, five-year-old Stephanie and three-week-old Lindsay April. As she set Lindsay April in her bassinet, she began experiencing chest and abdominal pains. She was having trouble breathing, and the pains were getting worse. She moaned to Stephanie to call 911. Before Stephanie dialed the phone, she unlocked the front door and turned on the porch light so rescuers could get inside.
Stephanie's call was answered by 911 dispatcher Ken Serwatowski. At first, he couldn't understand her because she was crying so hard. "My mommy is having chest pains," she repeated. Serwatowski immediately dispatched an ambulance from the Dearborn Heights Fire Department. EMTs Bill Branham and Dan Lamarand rushed to the scene. "The worst thing I thought," Branham recalls, "was, don't let it be a heart attack. That's the hardest part of our job, to see that happen in the presence of family."
Meanwhile, Serwatowski tried to calm Stephanie and keep her on the line. When he learned that she was only five, he thought about his own nieces and nephews, and he felt the most important thing he could do was reassure her that help was on the way. To get her mind off her emergency, he talked to her about other subjects. "Where did you learn how to use 911, in school?" he asked. "Yes, but I never used it before," she replied. He could hear Lindsay April crying in the background. "Do you have a little brother or little sister?" "Little sister." "What's her name?" "Lindsay April." "You're going to have to help your mom take care of her now, you know that?" "Yes." "Is that your first sister?" "Yeah." "I have five," said Serwatowski. Stephanie giggled. Serwatowski heard the sirens in the background and told her she could hang up the phone.
Stephanie felt great relief when the rescuers arrived because she knew they would take good care of Mary Jane. The EMTs were concerned about her complaints of chest and abdominal pains and thought she might be suffering a heart attack. As Branham attended to her, Lamarand picked up Lindsay April, who was crying hysterically, and handed her to Stephanie. He told her she was very brave and courageous to have called 911.
Mary Jane's mother, Barbara Keller, arrived to take care of Stephanie and Lindsay April as the EMTs got Mary Jane into the ambulance. She was admitted to Garden City Hospital where tests showed that she was suffering from a gallbladder attack. She underwent surgery to remove her gallbladder, but had it not been for Stephanie, things might have turned out differently.
"I was worried that my mom was going to die," said Stephanie, "but she didn't. My hope came true. I learned if I ever have another problem, I already know what to do for me and my whole family, which is call 911." She praises Seratowski. "He seemed like a real nice man," she said, "He just talked to me a lot to make me talk better because I was crying." "I was really amazed," he recalls. "She handled herself better than a lot of the adult callers that we have."
On June 10, 1991, the city of Dearborn Heights presented Stephanie with an award for heroism for helping to save Mary Jane's life. "I don't feel like a hero," she said, "except that I just feel like I saved my mom." Mary Jane said, "Stephanie will always be known as my little hero."
In other media[]
This story (alternately titled "Stephanie Saves Mom") is one of the 81 stories featured in the book Rescue 911: Extraordinary Stories by Linda Maron.
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