Hicksville, N.Y.--A 9-year-old girl is credited with saving her grandfather by sending a text message with her cell phone.
Joe Barella, 78, had just lost his wife. His granddaughter, Brooklyn Levinson, 9, was sleeping over at his home last weekend to keep him company.
At breakfast he became unresponsive.
"I thought he was crying because my grandmother passed away, and thought I should give him a moment," Brooklyn said.
But Barella wasn't deep in thought--he was in cardiac arrest.
Brooklyn didn't know what was happening, so she shot off concerned text messages to her mother.
She also sent video recorded by the cell phone of Barella slumped over his breakfast. It was enough to send Brooklyn's mother into high gear, rushing him to the hospital with moments to live.
"There is no question she saved his life", said her mother, Janine Levinson. "They were losing him."
Doctors said Barella suffered from undiagnosed arrhythmia.
"She definitely had a major impact on him being alive today," Dr. Dennis Ketchis, of North Shore University Hospital, said about Brooklyn.
Barella is expected to make a full recovery and to be released from the hospital later this week. He said he's planning a big celebration and a big purchase--a camera phone.
Joe Barella, 78, had just lost his wife. His granddaughter, Brooklyn Levinson, 9, was sleeping over at his home last weekend to keep him company.
At breakfast he became unresponsive.
"I thought he was crying because my grandmother passed away, and thought I should give him a moment," Brooklyn said.
But Barella wasn't deep in thought--he was in cardiac arrest.
Brooklyn didn't know what was happening, so she shot off concerned text messages to her mother.
She also sent video recorded by the cell phone of Barella slumped over his breakfast. It was enough to send Brooklyn's mother into high gear, rushing him to the hospital with moments to live.
"There is no question she saved his life", said her mother, Janine Levinson. "They were losing him."
Doctors said Barella suffered from undiagnosed arrhythmia.
"She definitely had a major impact on him being alive today," Dr. Dennis Ketchis, of North Shore University Hospital, said about Brooklyn.
Barella is expected to make a full recovery and to be released from the hospital later this week. He said he's planning a big celebration and a big purchase--a camera phone.
Where I live in Rhode Island, we get Channel 10 news, and they also have a website called "Turn to 10", the news gets emailed to every 4 hours, I had gotten this newcast emailed to me at 4:00.
Hi Reba!!!
