
DATE: Sunday, April 27, 1997                TAG: 9704280202

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LIZ SZABO, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   70 lines

ALERT 4-YEAR-OLD CALLS 911, SAVES MOM'S LIFE

Four-year-old Deja Edmond isn't supposed to speak to strangers.

Her mother has forbidden her to touch the chain lock on the front door of their apartment. She has warned her never to let a strange man in the house.

Today, Kisha Edmond thanks God that her daughter disobeyed her.

Deja dialed 911 when her mother collapsed, unconscious, in a diabetic seizure earlier this month.

Paramedics arrived shortly and revived Edmond with glucose injections, which restored her blood sugar to normal levels. Diabetics can die from low blood sugar. Edmond is now fine.

``The paramedics said I should be really grateful, because they said if (Deja) had waited one more minute to call I would have been dead,'' said Edmond, who collapsed minutes after driving home from work. ``It's a blessing I passed out at home. It could have happened when I was behind the wheel.''

Edmond lives alone with her daughter. ``It's just the two of us,'' said Edmond. ``My greatest fear has always been that something would happen when I was alone with my baby.''

Deja is just tall enough to reach the lock - if she stretches.

``Look, I can reach it,'' she said, racing to the door to re-enact the scene. ``I can even reach the top of the door. I'm very big.''

Deja's hair, braided and decorated with multicolored beads, rattles when she talks. She rarely stands still long enough to speak more than a sentence or two, alternately demonstrating her favorite gymnastic tumbles, then tenderly kissing her mother's cheek.

Deja memorized her grandmother's phone number the first time she heard it, Edmond said.

``Nobody could tell me different; nobody could pay me to believe differently. I know it was God watching over us that day,'' Edmond said. ``Maybe it was an angel.''

Chesapeake police Officer Michael D. Brown answered the call on foot. He was only half a block away that night, attending a tenant meeting in Cambridge Manor Apartments, where Edmond lives. The Chesapeake police operate a community policing field office in Cambridge Manor and in three other apartment complexes in South Norfolk.

When Deja called 911, she told the dispatcher only that her mother was hurt and that she couldn't get up, Brown said. He did not know Edmond was having a seizure.

``When I arrived, the daughter was somewhat upset and crying,'' Brown said. ``Ms. Edmond was flopping around, and I was afraid she was going to hurt herself. I tried to keep her still until the paramedics arrived.''

When Edmond regained consciousness, her first thoughts were for her daughter. She looked around the room and found Brown playing with Deja and her toys.

``He was a real sweetie,'' Edmond said. ``He rubbed my shoulder and kept telling me, `Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to stay here with you and look after your daughter.' '' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

IAN MARTIN/The Virginian-Pilot

Deja Edmond, 4, dialed 911 when her mother, Kisha, collapsed in a

diabetic seizure. If she hadn't, her mom could have died.

Graphic

KEEPING UP

For more information about Medic Alert bracelets, call

1-800-432-5378.

The South Norfolk Health Center offers free classes about

managing diabetes at 9 a.m. Tuesdays and 10 a.m. Saturdays at 490

East Liberty St. For more information about the classes, call

543-3548. KEYWORDS: RESCUE