Ore. Toddler`s 911 Call Helps Save Dad
KEIZER, Ore. --
A 3-year-old boy's frantic 911 call helped save his injured father, who accidentally sliced his arm open with a woodworking tool.
Keizer firefighters say the toddler, A.J. Hayes, dialed 911 at about 10:15 a.m. Friday and said, "Hurry! Daddy needs help!" and then hung up.
Listen To 911 Call:
Dispatchers called back to ask if the boy's father needed a police officer or an ambulance. A.J. replied, "OK," and hung up again. When they called back a second time, they heard the boy's father screaming in agony in the background.
A Keizer police officer was first to arrive and heard the weakened father softly say, "Come in."
The officer found Aaron Hayes ashen, leaning over the kitchen counter, almost unconscious and surrounded by blood. The officer grabbed some towels and began applying pressure to the wound.
Paramedics arrived soon after and rushed Hayes to Salem Hospital, where he was treated for a severed artery and released Friday afternoon.
During the calls, A.J. repeatedly told his father to be calm and that everything was OK.
“I might have died if my son hadn’t been there to call 911,” Hayes says.
He says he told his son, who was sitting nearby, to call 911 right after the accident happened.
“I just picked up that phone,” A.J. says. “I was brave.”
A.J., whose grandfather and uncle are both firefighters, says his parents had taught him his numbers, so he knew what to dial.
“I told them dad was hurting,” said A.J., who comforted his father until help arrived. “I said, ‘It’s going to be OK, Dad.’”
A.J.’s mother, Tonya Lucas, was at work at the time.
“I listened to the call and it just made me cry,” Lucas says. “It made me so proud he was able to do that and keep everything together.”
Hayes required 10 stitches.
A.J. says his first words to his father after the hospital were, "I love you," to which Hayes responded, “Thank you, son. You saved my life.”
