Aurora Chilvers has now been rewarded for her bravery by East Midlands Ambulance Service after keeping her composure when mum Beth, 32, became very unwell at their home in Rainworth, Nottingham
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Moment 6-year-old calls 999 to help her mum
A scared six-year-old girl came to her mum’s rescue after she collapsed at home, telling 999 operators: ‘Mummy can’t move’.
Quick-thinking Aurora Chilvers leapt into action after her mother Beth, 32, became seriously unwell at their home in Rainworth, Nottingham. The little schoolgirl stayed calm despite nobody else being at home and phoned her grandad who then called the emergency services to request an ambulance.
Audio captures the moment she stepped up before Emergency Medical Advisor Hayley Hodson then called Beth directly, who only had enough strength to answer the phone, before her young daughter took over. Aurora can be heard telling the call-handler: “Mummy can’t move. But she’s breathing. She can’t open her eyes. Her hands are cold.”
The adorable and brave youngster then added: “We’ve put our little kitten in the lounge and distracted her with some food and we put a little tray in there.” Hayley tells Aurora: “Brilliant, you’ve done really well to help mummy OK” before asking her a series of questions about her mum’s condition.
Aurora adds: “Her head hurts, and what else mummy? Tongue is numb. [Her chest] feels a little bit warm and hot.” Beth manages to say she doesn’t like the bright light in the room, to which Aurora tells Hayley: “She likes dark light.” When asked if it’s just her and mummy at home, she adds: “Yeah, and my kitten named Snowbell.”
Hayley asks how old Snowbell is and Aurora replies “zero” just before her grandmother arrives at the property to help and the call ends. Paramedics later arrived at the scene and found Beth was displaying the symptoms of a stroke before rushing her to hospital.
Beth has since made a full recovery since the incident on January 24 this year and Aurora has now been rewarded for her bravery by East Midlands Ambulance Service. Speaking of that evening, Beth described how her speech began to slur, she started struggling to move and felt a sudden headache.
She took herself to bed but her symptoms only intensified before Aurora found her. Beth said: “I was light-headed and coughing. I thought to have a hot bath to steam it out of my system. I was later told by the ambulance crew that this was the worst thing I could have done.
“Having such a severe migraine followed by taking a hot bath sent my body into shock, causing it to react the way it did. My temperature spiked to over 40 degrees Celsius, and I started to shiver and shake. I made my way to my bedroom and flopped on to my bed.
“When I saw Aurora come into my room all I could say was things like ‘help’, ‘try granddad’, and ‘try mamma’. When EMAS called back after my dad spoke to them, all I could do was lift my finger to answer the call. Aurora did all the explaining once the call was answered.
“As a single mum, I’ve always had that anxiety of thinking what would happen if I was ever in a situation of needing emergency medical help. I always drilled into Aurora that if ever mummy is in pain or passed out, you get mummy’s phone and ask for help, which she then did for me when I really needed it.
“I’m so proud of her. The crew were also amazing with Aurora. They gave her a torch which they use to check your eyes, which she still plays with. Aurora says she now wants to be a fire lady or police lady when she’s older.” It is still unclear why Beth’s body reacted the way it did, but luckily it wasn’t a stroke
Call-handler Hayley said: “Aurora was able to tell me what was happening with her mum’s symptoms as Beth was struggling to speak. Before the crew arrived, Aurora had put their kitten in another room and made sure the door was unlocked. She did exceptionally well during the phone call and answered a lot for her age.”
Ambulance technicians Richard O’Connor and Barbara Robinson were the crew who attended the incident. Barbara added: “It’s nice to see Aurora get the recognition that she deserves because she did a really good job of getting help for her It’s also been lovely to see Beth looking so well since the last time me and Richard responded to her in the ambulance.”
