Toddler Accidentally Calls 911 During Father’s Medical Episode, Saving His Life

Hernando County Sheriff’s Office

A Florida father has his toddler son to thank for saving his life after the child accidentally called the police during a medical episode that made him unable to do it himself.

Deputies with the Hernando County Sheriff's Office responded to a 911 hang-up call from an apartment complex in Spring Hill around 10:45 a.m. on Tuesday, the office said in a media release.

Deputy Nathan Kent told CW44 that hang-up calls like that are "very common," and typically involve people's disabled cell phones somehow getting into their children's hands.

Despite the routine nature, Kent responded anyway, and when he did, noticed a toddler with no clothes on walking in the apartment's parking lot with no supervision, the release said.

"Having a kid myself, I was more concerned, 'Hey, why is there an unsupervised kid?'" Kent told CW44. "And that's when I started looking around, and I saw the apartment complex door open with a bunch of kid toys."

Kent and the child went in the open door, and after calling out, he received no response. That's when he noticed an unconscious man on the floor who was not breathing and had no pulse, the release said.

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The man began breathing again shortly after Kent started chest compressions, and was rushed to the hospital by paramedics for further treatment, the release said.

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"Hospital staff advised the man was having a medical episode but would make a full recovery," it said.

Kent told CW44 that it was the child's messing around on the phone that wound up incidentally saving his father's life.

"The phone number, we looked later on, you could see that [the child] tried typing the password and it had 30 attempts that was the wrong password," he said. "It was probably accidental that he hit the button."

According to Kent, the tragedy-turned-rescue is a teachable moment for parents.

"My biggest thing is teaching your kids what to do in times like this, saying, 'Hey, if something happens, go to a neighbor, get my phone, call somebody,'" he said. "Try to have some kind of setup just like a fire drill."