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Photo by Sam Yu
When nanny Joyce Paulsgrove became ill recently, Mariah Johnson,
5, called 911 and looked after her brother, Zackery, 1.
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A 5-year-old girl took the telephone when her 62-year-old nanny felt ready to faint in the family room. Mariah Johnson answered a Frederick County emergency dispatcher's questions about her nanny and within 10 minutes help arrived, according to the dispatcher, Amanda Lambert. "She was amazing. For a little girl, she was awesome. It is amazing how well children can provide information and remain calm," Lambert said. "She told me how her nanny was doing, if she was breathing. She helped the situation positively." When rescue workers knocked on the door of the Frederick house shortly after 10 a.m. July 2, it was locked, said Joyce Paulsgrove, the nanny. She told Mariah to open the door. Mariah, she said, unlocked the door and then baby-sat her brother, Zackery, 13 months, while the emergency medical crew went to work. "They put her on a bed," Mariah said. "They did lots of stuff." Paulsgrove's blood pressure and potassium level were low, and doctors gave her a potassium supplement, Paulsgrove said. She spent three days in Frederick Memorial Hospital, but staff could not diagnose why she nearly passed out, she said. One of her first visitors at the hospital was Mariah. Mariah was relieved to find her nanny well again. "I was thinking that she might die, and I didn't want that to happen," she said. Paulsgrove is proud of Mariah, who calls her Granny. "I needed Mariah to help me, and she did," Paulsgrove said. "She's a very intelligent little girl."
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