5-Year-Old Boy Saves Mother’s Life During Epileptic Seizure by Using Amazon’s Alexa

[Sept. 29, 2020: Joelle Goldstein]

A Pennsylvania mother has her 5-year-old son — and Amazon's Alexa — to thank for saving her life after the boy used the smart device to call for help while she suffered an epileptic seizure.

Just one week before Natalie Neal received a call from her grandson, Tyrion Spann, notifying her of the medical emergency, the grandmother said she decided to program Alexa so that Tyrion could call whenever he wanted, ABC affiliate WPVI reported.

″I just thought for, you know, him to tell me, 'Hey grandmom, I love you. Hey Gigi, I love you,'″ Neal explained to the outlet, noting that the decision turned out to be one of the best things she ever did.

″A week and a half later, he's calling because he can't wake his mom up, so it was a very smart thing to do without knowing I was being smart," she added.

According to Neal, Tyrion was home alone with his mother Jasmine on Sept. 20 when she suffered one of the worst epileptic seizures she's ever had. Once he realized that his mom was unconscious, Tyrion jumped into action and called his grandmother.

″I thought he was laughing or joking and it turns out he was crying,″ Neal recalled to WPVI of the phone call. ″I'm telling him to calm down and he told me he couldn't wake his mom up. So, of course, being her mom, my heart kind of fell to the ground a little bit.″

Neal explained that she's always dreaded those types of calls, especially because her daughter has lived with epilepsy all her life.

″As a parent with a child who has epilepsy, who lives on her own, that's a call I didn't want to get because it could mean anything,″ she shared with the outlet. ″It could literally mean anything.″

Though she was worried about her daughter's condition and nowhere near Jasmine's Montgomery County home, Neal said she had to remain calm to get her help.

″The first thing I had to do was realize [Tyrion] had my child's life in his hands, so to speak, because I'm an hour away,″ she explained. ″So, I told him what I was going to do before I even did it, which was call 911."

Tyrion, who admitted to the outlet that he was ″scared″ during the incident, managed to also stay calm and opened the door for first responders when they arrived at the residence.

Now, almost 10 days after the medical emergency, Neal told WPVI that her daughter is doing well and commended her grandson for saving his mother's life.

While the incident has inspired Tyrion to become a police officer or a firefighter when he grows up, Neal said she's finding it as a reminder of the power of technology, especially for the younger generations.

″I'm old school, so we were trained to call 911," Neal explained to the outlet. "And I think in current times, our children have to learn how to use Alexa, the technology, to their advantage."

This Brighter Side of News post courtesy of People.

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