Quick thinking from Texas-based Dia saved her friend Aiden’s life.
A teenage gamer in Texas has saved the life of a fellow gamer after calling the emergency services almost 5,000 miles away when she heard that he was having a seizure during a gaming session.
The Liverpool Echo reports that Dia Lathora, from Texas, was gaming with Aidan Jackson from Widnes, UK, on Jan. 2, when she began to hear that he was having a seizure, which she heard over his microphone while he was still wearing his headset. With his parents unaware of the situation, Dia took the initiative and called the emergency services.
She told the Liverpool Echo, “I just put my headset back on and I heard what I could only describe as a seizure, so obviously I started to get worried and immediately started asking what was going on and if he was okay, when he didn’t respond, I instantly started to look up the emergency number for the EU.”
She had difficulty contacting emergency services and instead went through to a non-emergency line.
“When that didn’t work, I just had to hope the non-emergency would work, it had an option for talking to a real person…and I can’t tell you how quickly I clicked that button.
“It takes longer to get help if they can’t understand me, I told him that I wasn’t from the EU and I was trying to get help for my friend who had just had a seizure, in England.”
Aiden’s parents were unaware of the situation as they were watching television at the time of the incident, and were only alerted once the medical team arrived. Aiden’s mother, Caroline, was incredibly appreciative of Dia’s intervention.
She said, “We are so thankful for what Dia did. I’m sure it’s not every day that Cheshire emergency services get a phone call all the way from America. We can’t thank Dia and the emergency services enough for what they did, considering the 4,750 miles between Dia and Aidan.”
Aiden, who suffers from ADHD and Asperger’s, has recovered after the second instance of a seizure after his first in May 2019.
Published: Jan 13, 2020 02:47 pm