FANCY GAP, Va. -- A 911 dispatcher in Galax, Virginia answered a scared mother's prayers and helped save her child's life by guiding the little boy's family through CPR. Seventeen-month-old Aidan Walker had been under the weather and was taking a nap with his grandmother when he suddenly had a seizure and stopped breathing.
"I scooped him up in my arms, at that point he was lifeless. And I yelled out to her dial 911, dial 911, dial it now!," grandmother Cheri Grable said. Aidan's mother Melissa Grable picked up the phone and called 911. That is when 911 dispatcher Tim Webb picked up the line and entered her life.
Webb: 911 where's your emergency?
Grabel: Oh my God my baby my baby! He's not breathing oh my God oh my God! He's dying! He can't breathe!
Webb: Anybody there that knows CPR?
Grabel: No! No! What do we do?
Webb then broke the rules to save the child's life. Webb knows CPR, but the Galax Police Department does not have emergency medical certification. That means Webb and other dispatchers are not allowed to give out CPR instructions over the phone. Given the severity of the situation, Webb's chief said "go ahead" and Webb took a leap of faith.
"Without some sort of life-saving measures, the child would expire. I wasn't gonna let that happen, even if it meant being reprimanded," Webb said.
Grabel: This is my only son, I can't lose him!
Webb: I'm not gonna let you lose him. Put him on your kitchen table ok?
Grabel: Ok.
Webb: All right, barely pinch his nose off and put your mouth over top of his mouth, and I need you to blow in it just a second and see ok?
Cheri Grabel sprang into action and began to blow life back into her grandson. The nearest ambulance was 20 minutes from the family's home.
"It was the scariest day of my life. All I could do was say a prayer, over and over and over, please God don't take my son from me," mother Melissa Grable recalled. Grable's prayer was answered by Dispatcher Webb. A few weeks after the scare, the Grables visited Webb at the Galax Police Department to say thank you.
"It makes you realize why you get up, why you come to work, and why you do what you do," Webb said.
"He's gonna grow up and we're gonna bring him back to meet you," the women told Webb. "Yea, you're a lifelong friend, a lifelong friend."
