Hero

I have decided to post something unrelated to photography this time but certainly something worthy of the written word. When most people think of the word hero they think of someone like a soldier or an athlete. Most of the time ordinary folks aren't lumped into that category. This post is about an ordinary guy who became a hero by doing something out of the ordinary. It is about my son.

More after the jump...

My wife Gail is a diabetic. A couple of years ago her sugar level bottomed to the point where she passed out. I was out working and my son was home alone with her. When he was unable to wake her, he called me. "Daddy, Mommy won't wake up," he said calmly. "I think her sugar is dropping." An eight-year-old boy had just made a medical diagnosis. He was right.

I instructed him to shake her arm and when that yielded no result I told him to shake her violently. He did and she still wouldn't wake up. "I'm going to hang up the phone and call 911. Don't worry. I'll call you right back, okay? I'm on my way home right now." I hung up the phone and immediately called 911. He did the same thing.

I reported what had just transpired to the operator and she informed me that another operator was on the phone with my son at that very moment. An ambulance had been dispatched as my son relayed that his mother was breathing but still unresponsive. The operator told me that she would call me when the ambulance had arrived.

At this point I was still about thirty minutes out but was doing everything in my power to shave off the seconds. Fifteen minutes from home my phone buzzed. It was the 911 operator calling to let me know that my son had just gotten off the phone with her and had let the EMS folks in the house.

I arrived home to find Gail awake and alert after having been given a dose of glucose. She was eating and after being checked thoroughly by the EMS her sugar level had stablized. It was then that the EMS guys told on my son. Apparently, as soon as they entered the house my son insisted that they check Gail's blood sugar. "She's a diabetic and I think her blood sugar is dropping." They did check and found her level to be dangerously low. A few more moments and she surely would have slipped into a coma. My son was able to give them all the vital information they needed and was also able to locate Gail's list of medications for their report. "He's quite a kid," they said. "He saved you wife's life."

After the commotion had died and the emergency personnel had gone, I sat my son down to talk with him. "Do you know what a hero is?" I asked.

"It's like a basketball player or superman right."

"Well yes but a real hero is an ordinary person who does something super ordinary. It's an ordinary person who sets an example for other people by doing something extraordinary."

"Like superman."

"I'm talking about you, son. Because of what you did, Mommy is alive. You saved your Mommy's life today by doing what a hero does. You're an ordinary kid who did something super ordinary and set an example for other people. That makes you a hero."

Last year we were able to have his heroism recognized by nominating him for G105's, Bob's Good Kid of the Week, an award given by a local radio station. Not only did his feat win him the weekly award but he also won Bob's Good Kid of the Year. The only reason I mention these awards is because they were not expected by my son. He didn't nominate himself and had no clue he would win but was nominated by his proud parents who wanted the world to know that their son is a hero.

I hadn't thought about any of this for a while until the other night when my wife told me of something he had done. She was suffering through a bout of chronic pancreatitis when my son made an impromptu visit to her bedside. "Mommy, is there anything you need or anything I can do for you?" he asked. My wife thanked him but told him no, that she didn't need anything right then. "Well, let me know if you need anything."

At the time, although proud of his concern for his mother, I was a bit surprised by what he had done. I think of a ten-year-old being wrapped up with the TV, video games or the computer and not being tuned in to the needs of others. I guess I really shouldn't be that surprised though. He was only doing what a hero does.

More to come...