By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Five-year-old Aoife apparently doesn’t want to be a princess. She wants to be a super-hero.
And what an impressive start she has made to her chosen career.
In November, Aoife rushed to the rescue when mother Lindsey Forsyth collapsed unconscious and stopped breathing at their Berwick home.
Alone with her two-year-old sister Kiera, Aoife rang triple-zero.
Under the instructions of the operator, she performed CPR on her mother until paramedics arrived.
Aoife had got used to her mother collapsing due to a medical condition POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome) and a neutrally mediated syncope.
In short, Ms Forsyth’s heart rate and blood pressure drop away, causing blood to drain from her legs and “I hit the floor”.
On this occasion, Mum hit her head on the laundry door and didn’t wake up.
“I never thought I’d need to teach her CPR,” Ms Forsyth said.
“They think my heart stopped, but they don’t know for sure.”
Listening back to a recording of the triple-zero call, Ms Forsyth said it sounded like “chatting about your favourite TV program”.
Is your mother awake? No
Is she breathing? No.
The two children didn’t freak out, didn’t cry. Aoife probably doesn’t realise the enormity of what she did, Ms Forsyth said.
“She finds me unconscious quite often.”
However Aoife certainly knows what she wants. When her grandparents sent her a princess costume, she told them she required a Batman suit.
Aoife was one of 31 young Victorians aged four-13 who were awarded as Junior Triple Zero Heroes in a ceremony at Parliament House on 18 April.
She has also been helping out her Prep classmates at St Catherine’s Primary School as they begin First Aid class.
Since the incident, the proud mother has been fitted with a pacemaker. The risk of future collapses still looms.
Her children have simple instructions. “If I don’t talk to you or open my eyes, that’s when you ring the ambulance.”
