A mother today praised her eight-year-old daughter for alerting paramedics when she collapsed at her north London home.
Tanya Makengo, 26, was helped by her daughter Kirah when she fell to her bedroom floor at 11pm on Sunday after complaining of a migraine.
The business administrator told the Standard: “I knew something wasn’t right. I said to Kirah, ‘I don’t feel well — if something happens to mummy you ring 999 and listen to them’.
"Then I completely blacked out.”
While Ms Makengo was unconscious on the floor of her home in Enfield, Kirah phoned the emergency operator and described the situation as she waited for an ambulance to arrive.
Kirah, who has a sister Ruby, three, and a one-year-old brother, Alex, said: “I got back home from playing at my friend’s and was really tired and wanted to go to bed.
"My mum said she had a migraine and called me downstairs. That’s when my mummy fell out of the bed. It was really scary.
“I called them up and the lady on the phone told me to keep her head up towards the ceiling and to tell her how she was breathing.
"I had to try to move her head, it was hard and quite heavy. It was horrible to wait but I had to stay calm and think of my brother and sister too.”
London Ambulance Service call taker Danielle Woodfield said: “Kirah was incredibly brave under such pressure and did an amazing job at what must have been a really scary time.
"She kept calm, followed instructions to check her mum’s breathing, opened the door for paramedics, and importantly knew her exact address, enabling us to get help there quickly.
"She did everything she possibly could for her mum.”
Ms Makengo was discharged from hospital the next day with high blood pressure, which doctors believe caused the collapse.
She wants to use her daughter’s story to raise awareness for parents to teach their children to be confident enough to raise the alarm.
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She said: “I couldn’t be more proud of [Kirah]. She thought I was going to die and it breaks my heart that she was so worried... you try to bring your kids up to be brave and stand on their own two feet but it looks like she can already look after me just as much.”
