4-year-old saves mom's life a day after learning how to call paramedics: 'He's my little hero'

On August 26, 2022, Wendy Cocker, a qualified nurse, taught her son, Monty Cocker, how to use 000—the Australian equivalent of 911. She believed it was crucial for Monty to understand the skill, given that she is prone to seizures. She wanted to be certain that Monty knew what to do in the event that something should happen, according to Modern Met. She walked him through the process of making the call from both a locked and an unlocked phone, in the event of an emergency. “I think it’s really important that we do that and just tell them you should do it if you’re worried, you never know, it could save a life,” she said, according to a post on Facebook by Ambulance Tasmania.

What she did not know was that Monty would need the skill the very next day. A day after Wendy taught her son to dial 000, she suddenly took ill. But as she tried to call her husband on the phone and reach out for help, she started to have full-body seizures. Monty quickly responded by using his newly acquired skill, calling the paramedics right away to help his mother.

Monty called and acted on his feet. He told the operator who picked up the phone, "Mummy fell over," in a straightforward and coherent manner throughout the call. After briefly stating his age, Monty then added, "My dog always woofs at people." The comforting operator asked Monty if the dog is nice, to which Monty responds, "Yeah." The operator then assures Monty that everything will be OK.

When the team and she got to the residence, little Monty was on the phone, and his mother was lying on the floor, according to intensive care paramedic Danielle Masters. “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 explained. When Monty was able to explain what had happened and respond to all of their inquiries, the team was able to determine that his mother might have experienced a seizure. It is the first occasion a 4-year-old has called an ambulance in Masters' 15 years of paramedic service, she claims.

She admitted, “I was actually amazed at how he actually knew that that was something that he needed to call an ambulance for, and then actually know how to call an ambulance.” Later, Monty was given a special certificate of appreciation and reunited with the paramedic crew that had come to save his mother. According to Masters, she was motivated to teach her own children the same talent and contemplated deconstructing the learning process into a series of steps for them. That evening, she asked her 4-year-old son if he knew how to contact an ambulance.

It seems Monty Cocker's bar for a superhero is set really high because he says he's not a superhero, "just a regular hero." In an interview later that day, Wendy spoke to ABC about her experiences. "I wasn't feeling very well and I tried to contact my husband initially and as I did I went into a seizure," Wendy said. "The phone call I made to him went straight through to voice message. After that, within a couple of minutes, Monty made a triple-0 call and that's pretty much all I remember. And then I came to and it was all happening, the ambulance was there."

"He's my little hero; he certainly has saved the day," the proud mama said, beaming with joy at the heroic task her son could achieve. "He's super special; he's a very smart little boy."