GIRL, 7, SAVES WASP-STING MUM’S LIFE
ASEVEN-YEAR-OLD girl saved her mum’s life by calling 999 after she had a severe allergic reaction to a wasp sting.
Ela Haf Griffiths, from Maesteg, dialled 999 and asked for an ambulance on the evening of August 20 when her mum Laura Griffiths was stung by a wasp, causing her to collapse and fall down the stairs.
Laura, 38, was unconscious for around 40 minutes and wasn’t breathing until the paramedics arrived.
Now she’s urging parents to teach their children their home address and what to do in an emergency.
Laura, a business support manager, said: “If she hadn’t known how to call 999 and hadn’t known our address, I would have died. It’s as simple as that. Ela was my hero and I’m so, so proud of her. She saved my life.”
The pair had been getting ready to watch a film at around 7pm when Laura was stung by a wasp that had been inside the leg of her pyjama bottoms.
She said: “I felt a sharp pain down my leg. It was excruciating. The only way I can describe it is that it felt like something was burning my leg.
“I managed to get down a few of
the stairs before I collapsed and fell to the bottom onto the hallway floor.
“After that, I don’t remember anything, I completely passed out.
“My daughter was downstairs and she said I was shouting for help. She told me she was shouting ‘mummy, mummy’ and thought I’d fallen down the stairs.
“She got my mobile phone out of my bag and because she knows my password she called my dad who only lives about 10 minutes away.
“Ela then rang 999 and told the operator ‘mummy has fallen down the stairs and isn’t talking to me’.
“She saw the wasp on the stairs and told them she thought I might have been stung by a bee, which meant when the paramedics arrived they were able to administer antihistamines and adrenaline straight away.”
Ela, a year three pupil at Ysgol Cynwyd Sant, remained calm throughout the phone conversation and followed the operator’s instructions before Laura’s dad, John Griffiths, arrived and took over the phone call and performed CPR.
Laura said: “My dad told me that when he came into the house the first thing she said was ‘mummy is dead’. It was at this point Ela started crying hysterically. I think it all hit her at once.”
Paramedics arrived minutes later and took Laura to the Prince of Wales Hospital in Bridgend.
It was confirmed she had suffered a severe allergic reaction to the wasp sting and had gone into anaphylactic shock.
She stayed in hospital overnight before being discharged.
“The swelling on my leg has gone down but the mark has got bigger,” she said. “I don’t know if it will ever go away. But I’m alive, which might not be the case if Ela wasn’t there.”
Laura said she taught Ela at a young age how to call 999 in an emergency and their home address.
“I’ve lived alone with her since she was 18 months and because it’s always just been us two I’ve drummed into her what she needs to do if there’s an accident,” she said.
“I’ve told her how to call 999 and she knows how to say and spell our address.
“The one thing everyone should take away from this is that children need to know how to call 999 and they need to know the address.”