Although he doesn’t seem to remember doing it, a 3-year-old boy may have saved his mother by quickly dialing 911 after she collapsed.

Saturday, October 23, 1999

Although he doesn’t seem to remember doing it, a 3-year-old boy may have saved his mother by quickly dialing 911 after she collapsed.

The last thing Marsha Indrelie remembers about the morning of Oct. 15 was going upstairs to make her 3-year-old son a peanut butter sandwich.

&uot;I was sitting on the couch when he asked me to make a sandwich. When I started to get up, I was light-headed. So I told him I would be there in a minute,&uot; Indrelie recalled. &uot;I got up and headed upstairs. That’s the last thing I remember.&uot;

Although Indrelie doesn’t know exactly what happened next, others have recounted the situation for her.

Jarrod, Indrelie’s son, tried to wake Allison, his 13-year-old sister who was home from school with the flu.

&uot;I was taking a nap on the couch, and Jarrod came down and said, ‘Come upstairs and look.’ But I didn’t think too much of it, so I went back to sleep,&uot; Allison said. At the time, Jarrod didn’t seem very alarmed.

In fact, Indrelie was told that the boy was rather calm when he explained the situation to the 911 operator. The boy had called after he was unable to get his sister’s attention.

Albert Lea Police Officer Rodney Davis was the first to respond to the Indrelie house.

Because Indrelie wasn’t expecting anyone, she left the doors locked. Each door had dead bolts near the top of the door, out of Jarrod’s reach even though he had learned how to unlock the doors.

Davis said he could see a boy standing in the house talking on the telephone, but the child didn’t hear when Davis asked him to unlock the doors.

Repair technicians who were at Indrelie’s neighbors offered Davis assistance.

&uot;The guys from Jim ‘n’ Dudes asked me if I wanted them to kick the door in,&uot; Davis said. &uot;I didn’t know if she was breathing or not and I had to get in there.&uot;

It was the breaking of the door that awoke Allison, who didn’t know that there had been an emergency. Davis followed Jarrod upstairs and found Indrelie lying on the bathroom floor. Minutes later the paramedics arrived and brought her to the hospital.

&uot;When I told Jarrod that he helped his mother a whole lot, he got this big grin on his face. He knew he did the right thing,&uot; Davis said.

When asked about the call now, Jarrod answers, &uot;Mommy did it.&uot;

But Davis confirms it was indeed Jarrod who placed the call.

Indrelie said she has taught all of her children – Matthew and Jenna make four – to call 911 when something goes wrong.

&uot;I didn’t think that it was sinking in with Jarrod,&uot; Indrelie said. When she showed him how to dial the number, he seemed more concerned with his toy trucks. Apparently the lesson was learned.

Life is beginning to return to normal for the Indrelies. Jarrod is currently thinking of Halloween. The young red head plans on disguising himself as the Rugrat’s Chuckie for the big day.

Indrelie can only speculate as to why the boy doesn’t take credit for his good deed. She thinks perhaps all of the attention might have caused Jarrod to think that he did something wrong. In the wake of the excitement, Jarrod is a little more quiet than usual. But Indrelie thinks Jarrod is bouncing back.

Indrelie, too, is recovering. Though she chose not to disclose the nature of the medical emergency, she said she is still in her doctor’s care and is feeling better.