5-Year-Old Saves Diabetic Father's Life

Holly Price found her dad in diabetic coma
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 11, 2014 12:21 PM CST
5-Year-Old Saves Diabetic Father's Life
   (Shutterstock)

A British man who fell into a diabetic coma in the wee hours of Saturday morning has his 5-year-old to thank for his life. Barry Barkess, who has been insulin dependent for 33 years, fell into a hypoglycemic coma shortly after midnight. Daughter Holly Price woke up in the middle of the night and, her father believes, realized he wasn't in his bed. She found him on the sofa and tried to shake him awake. He tells the Northern Echo, "I stood up and fell back down again because [during an episode] you've got no use in your limbs. I was crawling into the kitchen, but she knew what to do."

His destination was the fridge, which is where Barkess' glucagon injection kit is kept. But Holly made it there first, and put the training her now-separated parents had given her to good use: She injected her dad in the stomach, then called her mom. Says Barkess, "This act of bravery by her has probably saved my life or stopped me from having life-threatening complications. For her to come along out of the blue and remember everything is amazing." (Click to read about a 4-year-old who saved her father by running.)

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