BATLLE CREEK, Mich. — Amelia Hoffman loves the color pink. She’s 5 years old and loves her pink shirt with the pink flamingos on it, and chooses to color with a pink crayon in her coloring book.
“I’m a pink superhero,” Amelia said with a big smile.
A hero is what her mom, dad, and the Calhoun County Consolidated Dispatch Authority have been calling her lately.
On November 15, she made a phone call that helped save her mom’s life.
“My dad taught me how to call 911 so I did it,” Amelia said while sitting next to her mom Mia during an interview with FOX 17 on Tuesday.
“My daddy teached me how to call 911 and so I did it.”
— Lauren Edwards (@LaurenEdwardsTV) December 22, 2021
This superhero — who’s 5yo and loves the color pink — made a phone call that helped saved her mom’s life when she was having a medical emergency.
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Mia has Type 1 diabetes and has had it since her freshman year of high school. That day on November 15, she remembers taking insulin. However, when she began getting ready for dinner, she sat down and crashed.
“That day that it happened it was actually the 16th anniversary of my diagnosis,” Mia said. “So, it’s like ‘Of course, for all days for it to happen it might as well be this one.’”
Her husband was also at work that day, his first day on the job. So, when Amelia saw her mom go down on the couch, she knew what to do.
“9-1-1 location of your emergency,” said the dispatcher.
“Um my mom doesn’t feel good, can you help me?”
“Mommy doesn’t feel good?”
Amelia stayed on the phone and told the dispatcher she was 5-years-old.
“Where’s mommy at?” asked the dispatcher.
“Um, she’s on the couch and she’s kind of not really much hungry because she doesn’t feel that good.”
Amelia said she knew to call 9-1-1 when she saw that her mom was sweating.
Mia said that’s one of the main symptoms of Type 1 diabetes, sweating profusely. She remembers Amelia being on the phone and also trying to help her eat.
“While she was waiting for [the police] to get here this little monkey scaled the counter and made me a sandwich,” Mia said while tickling her daughter. “She was giving me treats trying to get my blood sugar back up. She did a fantastic job.”
“Yeah I gave you water too,” Amelia exclaimed with a smile.
On the other end of the phone call was emergency tele-communicator Samantha Ritchie. She remembers the phone call well.
“It was just a normal day. Get a call. Hear a little, a little voice on the other line and she says you know she needs some help there,” Ritchie said during an interview with FOX 17 at the Calhoun County building in Marshall on Tuesday. “She was so brave, so strong. She gave us the best information that she could give us. We were able to get help to her.”
Amelia was also able to put the dog Larry in another room. When police arrived, she let them in while Ritchie was still on the line.
“Amelia, Amelia can you go make sure that the door is unlocked?” Ritchie said that day on the dispatch line. “My officer friend he’s going to be there in just a second. He’s going to be in the driveway.”
When the officers arrived they brought Amelia a card and a balloon. And when the fire department came they immediately tended to Mia giving her oral glucose which helped to revive her.
“She did such an amazing job. I mean, it’s a position I never wanted her to be in,” Mia said. “It’s not ever anything that I intended that she would have to take care of me.”
Ritchie was proud of her too. She made sure to tell her when they met face-to-face weeks later.
“She so sweet. It was so good. She so full of life,” Ritchie recalled. “She’s just so sweet. She was so open. She gave me a big ole hug.”
Ritchie also applauded the Hoffmans for training Amelia one what to do in emergency situations. She said they get a lot of child callers at the center and many don’t know where there are calling from.
“My husband had literally two days before showed her how to make an emergency call without having to put the password in,” Mia said. “Apparently I gave EMS the wrong address just because I was low everything was fuzzy. But Amelia helped clear that up.”
Ritchie recommended that adults, parents, and guardians make sure that all kids in the household know their address, the color of the house, the color of the vehicles outside, and landmarks in the neighborhood.
Since the incident, Amelia wrote out her address on a piece of paper and put it on the refrigerator and she said she’s remembered it.
“She may not be able to read it yet but she knows her letters,” Mia said. “So, like it’s a good way to practice.”
“I still know it,” Amelia said with a big smile.
“Yeah, that’s good,” Mia said smiling back.
