A brave five-year-old girl from Britain became a hero when she saved her mother’s life and proved that not all heroes wear a cape – they can also wear a princess dress and a crown.
The little girl saved her mother’s life when they were home alone.
According to BBC, Poppy Davies and her mother Leisha Davies were home alone when Leisha suddenly went into septic shock. The 35-year-old mother and psychiatrist had been feeling ill for several weeks after undergoing surgery for a torsion of the intestine in October 2023.
It seemed that the surgery had caused complications for Leisha. In January 2024, she woke up extremely tired and collapsed on the bedroom floor later that day while her husband Ryan was at work.
“Poppy opened all the curtains and blinds in the house and turned on all the lights to attract attention,” Leisha said. “But when no one came, she spent the night with me.”
The next morning, wearing the same princess dress and crown she had worn while playing before her mother collapsed, Poppy ran all the way to her school, Pontllanfraith Primary School, to get help. Luckily, the building was right behind her house, so the little girl didn’t have to go far.
“On the morning of the 19th, she was in her princess dress, rubber boots and wearing her little crown. She unlocked my front door and walked to the school gate right next to my house,” the proud mother explained. “She went into the classroom and told the teacher, ‘Mommy is on the floor and I can’t wake her up.'”
After Poppy got help from her teacher, Leisha was put into a medically induced coma to save her life.
Poppy arrived at school and told her teacher what had happened. The teacher immediately called 999, walked her home and helped her change into her school uniform before returning her safely to school.
After discovering Leisha’s unconscious body, two of Poppy’s teachers placed her in the recovery position while they waited for the ambulance.
At the hospital, doctors found that Leisha was in septic shock and only one of her lungs was functioning at 15% of its capacity, according to the Daily Mail. Leisha was then put into an induced coma for three weeks to allow her body to recover. Aside from a few vivid and frightening dreams, as Leisha described it, she has no memory of this time.
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Leisha spent a total of nine weeks in the hospital while her feet were treated because they had turned black due to the medication she had been given.
Leisha was initially told that her feet would have to be amputated from the shinbone down, but doctors were only able to remove half of each foot. Now Leisha hopes her story will raise awareness of the symptoms of sepsis and give children the courage to know what to do in an emergency.
It’s a valuable resource for teaching your children how to call 911, having them memorize the numbers of their parents or other family members who live nearby, and getting them comfortable asking others for help if something happens. Children are never too young to know that if something terrible happens, they can act immediately instead of waiting for someone else to intervene because by then it might be too late.
“It’s scary,” Leisha admitted. “I always think, what if the inevitable actually happens and she doesn’t know what to do? She doesn’t understand the magnitude of the situation, but she recognizes when I say, you’re my little hero, you saved mommy’s life and that makes her happy.”
Nia Tipton is a Chicago-based entertainment, news and lifestyle writer whose work explores current issues and experiences.
