When it’s not your time to go, it’s not your time to go. April 12th was not Kyle Semrau’s day to leave this earth, in spite of a medical emergency that left his entire family shaken yet filled with gratitude.
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The day started as usual, with one big difference: Kyle’s 6-year-old daughter Macie refused to go to school.
This behavior is unusual for the kindergartner, but she was just really missing her dad that morning. It was also the one-year anniversary of her grandmother’s death, so she needed some extra comfort. When Kyle got home from his night job, he agreed to spend a quiet day with his daughter and 4-year-old son, Caleb, while his wife went to work.
Kyle wasn’t feeling very well when he got home that day due to an ongoing issue with his sinuses and lungs. Later that morning, he took a turn for the worse and struggled to breathe, losing consciousness repeatedly. When he was awake, he was yelling incoherently for help.
As fate would have it, help was in the house! Macie heard her father and realized that she needed to do something. While Caleb comforted their dad, she took control like someone three times her age.
During one of Kyle’s conscious moments, Macie asked him to recite his cell phone’s password so that she could unlock the device. Then, she opened Google and typed in, “Eliot poliz.”
“I pressed this button and typed Eliot Police, and I hit call,” Macie explained. “I don’t want to say this, but I thought he was going to die.”
Administrative assistant Judy Smith picked up the telephone at the Eliot Police Department. She says Macie “knew everything,” including her home address, her dad’s name and age, and how police could best get to him inside the basement room where he’d been resting.
While she waited for help to arrive, Macie figured out how to unlock the basement door and dispatched her little brother to close an upstairs door to keep the family dogs away. Police arrived in just two minutes and rushed Kyle to Wentworth-Douglass Hospital.
Kyle spent three days recovering in the hospital and is now recuperating at home. He has had plenty of time to reflect on the series of coincidences that lead to his survival.
“Just incredible all around,” he said. “I’m very lucky, obviously because of my daughter and son and the (police) response. It was quick.”
Eliot Police Chief, Elliot Moya, agreed. “It sounds like the moon and the stars aligned.”
Kyle hopes that sharing this story will encourage parents to teach their children important information about where they live and who they live with. While he and his wife try to limit screen time, they do allow Macie to send her dad text messages during the work day, a life skill they’re certain helped her remain calm and know what to do in this emergency situation.
“If I can say anything about this whole experience, it’s for everyone to teach kids about awareness,” said Kyle. “If I hadn’t taught my daughter certain things she wouldn’t learn in school, this outcome could have been completely different.”
Well done, Macie! The family says the series of coincidences that occurred on this day felt like “divine intervention,” and we can’t help but agree.
Share this story to wish Kyle a speedy recovery.
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