3-year-old Lenny-George Jones from the UK had to think on his feet when his father Mark collapsed on the kitchen floor, The Mirror reports.
Thankfully, the toddler was able to save his father from a diabetic coma after he fed his dad enough yogurt to get his sugar levels high enough for him to regain consciousness and take his glucose tablets.
Lenny-George couldn’t reach the yogurt on the fridge, so he dragged a little blue chair for him to stand on. As he also couldn’t reach the cutlery, the toddler fed his 34-year-old dad with a plastic knife from his toy kitchen.
Photo: HealthShare/YouTube
“He saved his life,” Lenny-George’s mum Emma told Manchester Evening News. “Mark is a Type 1 diabetic and has to take insulin four times a day. It was a Sunday night, I needed to nip to my mum’s, which is literally two minutes around the corner by car, and I left them watching CBeebies together.
“I’d been out for about 30 minutes and when I got back they were lying on the sofa. Mark didn’t look well, so I said, ‘what’s going on here?’
“Lenny just turned to me and said ‘I saved daddy’, and Mark said it was true, he had.”
When Emma got home, her husband’s sugar levels were down to 1.1—the normal levels are 4-7.
“It could’ve been a completely different scenario if he’d been in bed or Lenny hadn’t done what he did. He could’ve ended up in a diabetic coma.”
Hypoglycemia and diabetic coma
Mark experienced what is called a hypoglycemic event. Hypoglycemia, according to Diabetes.co.uk, occurs when blood sugar levels fall under 4 mmol/L. Hypoglycemia has symptoms like dizziness, hunger, mood swings, sweatiness, trembling, and difficulties concentrating.
In severe cases, someone with hypoglycemia can faint or have a seizure. This can lead to a diabetic coma, which is a life-threatening condition that could lead to brain damage or death.
How did Lenny know what to do?
What makes this situation especially incredible is the fact that neither Emma nor Mark had ever explained Mark’s condition to their son, or informed him what to do in case something like this happened. Emma thinks that Lenny-George had observed her take care of Mark in the past, and learned from that.
“Lenny must have seen Mark unwell in the past and watched me go to the fridge to get him food. If there’s no Mars Bars in the cupboard I do tend to get him a yoghurt,” she said.
“It’s incredible what he’s done, and how he knew to do it. We are so proud!”
Preparing kids for emergencies
The Jones family are incredibly fortunate that Lenny is such an observant child. Things could have turned out very differently if he hadn’t known what to do. That’s why all parents should teach their kids how to respond to an emergency situation, especially if you or any of your family members have a chronic medical condition.
This includes knowing the emergency numbers, which neighbors they can turn to for help, and in some cases, even how to get to the yogurt.