You deserve good things
Elise Kilmer was upstairs in her room and didn’t hear her grandmother collapse in the kitchen. Luckily, she wasn’t alone. Her best buddy, Saige, sounded the alarm, pawing at the door… and saving her life!
Elise Kilmer carried her plate and glass to the sink, her 2-year-old Labradoodle, Saige, at her heels. “We’re going upstairs,” the Burton, Ohio, high school junior told her grandmother, Emily Kilmer.
Elise loved her grandmother’s visits. And with her parents, brother and sister out, Elise and her grandma had spent the morning talking, just the two of them. Now, as Elise headed upstairs to get ready for her job as a lifeguard, the 81-yearold replied, “I’m going to read while I finish my lunch.”
“C’mon, girl,” Elise called, and the frisky pup followed her.
“You can keep Grandma company while I’m at work,” she told Saige, who lay curled up on her bed. “I didn’t mean right now,” she smiled as Saige jumped down and headed to the door. But then the pup started barking and frantically scratching at Elise’s door.
“Do you need to go out?” Elise asked, and when she opened the door, Saige bounded out and down the stairs, barking nonstop.
Curious, Elise stepped to the top of the stairs— and gasped. “Oh my God!” she cried, spotting her grandma on the floor, her milk glass toppled on the kitchen table!
Elise snatched the phone and dialed 911.
“My grandma’s unconscious! I think she’s choking!” she told the dispatcher.
“Help is coming,” the operator advised. “In the meantime, you need to try the Heimlich. I’ll talk you through it.”
But Elise was one step ahead of him—her lifeguard training clicking into autopilot. Straddling her grandmother, Elise balled up a fist, placed her other hand on top and pressed on her grandmother’s chest just below the rib cage— once, twice, three times.
“It’s not working!” she called to the operator.
“Check her pulse,” he advised.
“I found a pulse!” she announced. “But she’s not breathing!”
“It’s time to start chest compressions,” the operator instructed. Her own heart pounding, Elise switched to doing compressions, while Saige licked furiously at Emily’s ghostly pale cheek.
After two excruciating minutes, Emily’s eyes rolled open. “Are you okay?” Elise asked tearfully, but her grandmother lay mute and limp as a ragdoll.
Elise continued compressions, counting aloud to help maintain rhythm. Finally, EMTS arrived and gave her grandmother oxygen. As they loaded her onto a stretcher, they praised Elise.
“She’s breathing on her own. You did everything perfectly.”
Emily’s mis-swallow led to aspiration pneumonia, but after two nights in the hospital, she was well enough to go home. “I could have died, but you saved me,” she couldn’t stop thanking her granddaughter.
“I didn’t do it alone,” Elise insisted. And nuzzling Saige’s fur, added, “If she hadn’t started barking, I never would have found you in time. Saige is the real lifesaver. She truly is a very special dog.”