Four-Year-Old Learns To Call Paramedics, Then Saves Mom's Life

4-Year-Old Hero Learns To Call Paramedics, Then Saves His Mother’s Life a Day Later

By Kirsten Miller on October 26, 2022

Monty Cocker says he's not a superhero, just a “regular hero.” The 4-year-old’s standards for hero status are pretty high; but, to his mother, he is more than qualified for the superhero position. Just a day after learning how to call the paramedics in case of an emergency, Monty used his new skill to save her life.

On August 26, 2022 in Tasmania, Wendy Cocker, a registered nurse, sat down with her son and taught him how to dial 000 (Australia's version of 911). They had just visited the ambulance tent at the AgFest—an annual agricultural field days festival organized by youths—and she thought, “Gee, I really need to teach Monty how to do it.” Cocker is prone to seizures, and she wanted to make sure that Monty knew what to do if she had a fit in his presence. She took him through the steps to make the call from both a locked and an unlocked phone, in case of any unforeseen emergency. The next day, Cocker wasn't feeling too well, and as she tried to reach her husband on the phone, her body went into full seizure.

Monty responded immediately, using his new skill to call the paramedics, who arrived straight away to help his mother. During the call, Monty communicates clearly and concisely, and tells the operator, “Mummy fell over.” A few second later, after confirming his age, Monty says, “My dog always woofs at people.” The reassuring operator asks if the dog is friendly, and Monty replies, “Yeah,” to which the operator says, “They'll be fine, then.”

Intensive care paramedic Danielle Masters says that when she and the team arrived at the house, they saw little Monty on the phone, and his mum on the floor. “He was just so calm and he'd just followed all the instructions that the comms had told him to, which I thought was really amazing,” she explains. Monty was able to answer all their questions and tell the team what had happened, and they eventually figured out that his mum may have had a seizure. Masters says that in her 15 years of work as a paramedic, it is the first time a 4-year-old has made a call to an ambulance. “I was actually amazed with how he actually knew that that was something that he needed to call an ambulance for,” she admits, “and then actually know how to call an ambulance.”

Later, Monty was reunited with the paramedic team that arrived to save his mom, and he was awarded a special certificate of appreciation. Masters says she was inspired to teach her own children the same skill, and she thought about breaking the learning process down into sequential steps for them. That evening, she asked her own 4-year-old if he knew how to call an ambulance.

As this inspiring story of the 4-year-old hero Monty becomes known, it's a great reminder to parents around the world to teach their children simple actions that will save a life. They, too, might achieve at least regular hero, if not superhero, status.