A three-year-old boy bravely saved his mum’s life by stopping her from slipping into a potentially fatal diabetic coma.
Little Huey Walton stepped into action after seeing Amanda, who has Type 1 diabetes, faint after getting out of the bath.
She went into hypoglycaemia, which is where blood glucose levels drop, for the first time since Huey was born.
The brave youngster called his grandmother to say something was wrong and an ambulance was dispatched to their home in Brentwood, Essex.
Amanda, 44, said: “I got out the bath and went downstairs and that’s the last I know about it.
“I had gone to grab some Lucozade and didn’t get there in time and collapsed on the settee.
“There are only so many hours you can be like that before going into a diabetic coma.
“I was amazed he took the initiative to make that call – the number isn’t even logged on the phone.”
Amanda, a part-time insurance claims investigator, went into the shock while her husband Graham was at work in London on March 18, and as Huey was all ready to go to a birthday party, dressed as Postman Pat.
But wasting no time, he picked up the handset and correctly pressed the right digits to contact grandmother Maureen Walton, 66, shortly after 9am.
“I picked up the phone and said ‘hello, how are you’? and he said ‘I’m all right, but mummy isn’t well’,” said Maureen.
“He said she was on the settee and all her hair was wet, which I thought was a bit funny.
“I asked him to put his mum on the phone and I could hear him saying ‘mummy, mummy, nanny wants to speak to you’, but I couldn’t hear Amanda speak at all.
“Because I knew of her condition I knew something was wrong and by then I was trying to get my boots on and tell my husband we were going up there so I said ‘we are coming, we won’t be long’.”
The little boy checked whether his mum was breathing before rushing upstairs to fetch a towel, which he doused in cold water to help bring her temperature down.
Maureen and her husband Brian then arrived at the house shortly afterwards, before an ambulance arrived.
“Once the ambulance came we sat there for two hours,” said Maureen.
“Normally she comes round and then she isn’t too bad, but this time she wasn’t coming round properly so they took her to the hospital.
“I’m really proud of him – a three-year-old doing that is wonderful. He’s our little hero.”
Amanda has suffered hypoglycaemia in the past, but this is the first time it has happened in 10 years.
It occurs when blood glucose drops below normal levels and can happen suddenly. If left untreated, it can get worse and cause confusion, clumsiness, or fainting.
Severe hypoglycemia can lead to seizures, coma and even death.
Amanda said: “Sugar levels can just suddenly drop. Sometimes a hot bath can draw the sugars out of you and they can suddenly come on and you have no awareness of it.
“That is what happened this time, because the next thing I remember is the paramedic saying ‘Amanda, can you hear me’?
“It took over two hours to come round. It was frightening and made worse because Huey was in the house on his own.
“I am extremely proud of him. I still can’t believe it.”
Dad Graham, an investment banker at HSBC, said: “It’s amazing. We had no idea he even knew his grandma’s number until he called her.
“The number isn’t saved anywhere. He just picked up the landline and dialled her house phone.
“He was really calm and told her mummy wasn’t waking up even though he was shaking her.
“Then he did everything she told him to make sure Amanda would be alright.
“It’s remarkable that a three-year-old managed to do something so brave.
“He saved Amanda’s life because without him we would never have known she was ill and it could have been too late if he hadn’t raised the alarm.
“He’s a true hero.”
Amanda and Graham have now entered Huey into the Pride of Britain Awards for his heroic actions.
