UK: Clever 5-Year-Old Girl Saves Dad’s Life When He Falls Into a Coma

Daily Mail
February 13, 2014

Hero Holly Price saved her father Barry's life when he fell into a diabetic coma. Finding him slumped on the sofa, she injected him with glucagon to raise his blood sugar
Hero: Holly Price saved her father Barry’s life when he fell into a diabetic coma. Finding him slumped on the sofa, she injected him with glucagon to raise his blood sugar.

A five-year-old girl has been hailed a hero after saving her father’s life when he fell into a diabetic coma.

Holly Price found her father Barry slumped on the sofa and calmly injected him in the stomach with glucagon – a hormone that raises blood sugar.

Mr Barkess, 47, had fallen into a hypoglycemic coma at around 1.30am on Saturday at his home in Stanley, County Durham, and was unconscious.

Mr Barkess, who has been insulin dependent for 33 years, said: ‘I must have passed out on the settee and Holly has woken up, found out I wasn’t in bed and come down.

‘She must have found me and tried to wake me up. I remember her shaking my face.

Brave Holly's parents have taught her that her father needs an injection from the fridge is he becomes unwell
Brave: Holly’s parents have taught her that her father needs an injection from the fridge if he becomes unwell.

“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. It probably would have killed me if she was not there.’

Mr Barkess and Holly’s mother, Sandra, who are separated, have taught their daughter that her father needs an injection from the fridge is he becomes unwell.

But Holly, who is in year one, has never had to put the vital first aid training into practice.

Calmly, Holly went to the fridge and got her father’s glucagon injection kit before injecting him in the stomach.

She then called her mother on his mobile phone and played computer games until she arrived.

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