3-year-old girl credited with saving grandmother’s life with 911 call

Three-year-old Sawyer plays with her toys while her mother, Alisha Poole, watches on Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2019. | Stuart Johnson, Deseret News

BLUFFDALE — Three-year-old Sawyer Poole is being called a hero for saving her grandmother’s life.

After her grandmother collapsed on Nov. 19, Sawyer told 911 dispatchers to “come quickly.”

“My Nani is so sick,” Sawyer is heard telling a dispatcher named Joanna, who keeps the girl on the line for nearly 11 minutes until first responders arrive.

“We thought that something like this would never happen in a million years,” Sawyer’s mother, Alisha Poole, said Tuesday.

In a recording of the 911 call, the dispatcher asks the girl what’s wrong with her grandmother.

“I need your help. Come quick,” Sawyer says as her grandmother groans in the background.

“OK. I have help on the way sweetie, is your door unlocked?” Joanna asks.

“My Nani is sick please come over,” Sawyer says.

“Wake up Nani … wake up like this,” she can be heard saying.

Joanna then proceeds to patiently ask the girl what’s going on with her grandmother, if her grandmother can talk to her, if anyone else is with her, and how old she is.

“I’m in my house,” Sawyer answers.

Later in the call Sawyer tells Joanna her grandmother is “so sick.”

“She needs a doctor,” she tells Joanna.

“I’ve got an ambulance coming, OK?” Joanna responds, reassuring the girl that help is on the way.

When the police officers finally arrive, Sawyer can see them but the door is locked.

“Oh, they’re knocking the door,” Sawyer says.

“Can you go open the door?”

“Yes.”

“Yes. Go open the door,” Joanna says.

“I’m on my way.”

Then Sawyer is heard telling Joanna the door’s locked.

“What am I going to do?” Sawyer cries. “I don’t have my keys.”

Joanna tries to then talk her through unlocking the door, but to no avail.

The officers eventually had to break open a back door.

Bluffdale officers Corwin Bowles and Garret Carter were the first ones inside the house.

“I just remember her hair was kind of a mess and she was like, ‘Hey guys, what’s up?’” Bowles said.

“Probably saved her grandmother’s life to be honest,” he said.

Stuart Johnson, Deseret News

Alisha Poole listens to a 911 call on Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2019, in which her 3-year-old daughter, Sawyer, talks with dispatchers after her grandmother fell ill.

According to Sawyer’s mother, her grandmother — who had pneumonia, the flu and was severely dehydrated — remembers getting to the bathroom and vaguely remembers telling Sawyer to get the phone. After that she passed out.

Next thing she knew she was waking up in the hospital.

“I told her (Sawyer) that she was very brave for what she did and that I was proud of her for helping Nani,” Alisha Poole said. “I’m glad she knew what to do.”

Officials at the 911 call center said they, too, are proud of Sawyer, as well as Joanna for keeping Sawyer talking.

The incident is also a good reminder of the importance of teaching children about emergency situations and what to do.

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