A 6-year-old Maryland boy is being hailed as a hero for saving his mother’s life last month.
Zahra Naqvi had just finished running errands on a Saturday when she got sick.
"As I was driving home, I started getting lightheaded and I felt really sick,” Naqvi said. “As I got into the house, I could feel my legs giving out, like, my legs were shaking. I was sweating. I was cold.”
She didn’t know it at the time, but she had contracted a severe case of norovirus.
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“I could feel, like, my lungs were contracting and I couldn't breathe,” she said.
Her 6-year-old son, Aayaan Gujjar, quickly picked up the phone and called for help. When dispatch asked for their address, he told them.
Aayaan knew exactly what to do in that situation because his mother made it a point to practice emergency preparedness with him starting when he was 2.
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"Knowing the type of world we live in, I wanted to always be proactive, then reactive,” Naqvi said.
Last week, Montgomery County police invited Aayaan and his mother to the station to meet Paul, the dispatcher he spoke with that day.
"Because I could tell it was a young kid on the phone, the main thing for me was try to get a location or address, just because as long as we have that, we can send help out,” Paul said in a video the police department posted to X.
The department and Aayaan’s family hope other families can learn from their scary situation. They encourage people to practice emergency scenarios with their little ones, because it could save a life.
"I think the biggest thank-you I owe to is my son and his quick thinking,” Naqvi said.
