Three-year-old dials 911 to save grandmother, and more

Three-year-old dials 911 to save grandmother

Three-year-old Jaden Bolli was with his grandmother in Maple Shade, N.J., when she suddenly passed out and fell down, the victim of a stroke. Instead of panicking, he dialed 911. When the dispatcher asked him what was wrong, he responded, “Mom-Mom’s sick.” It turns out that just four days earlier, Jaden’s mother, Candace Robbins, had told him what to do in an emergency: “If you don’t hear my heartbeat, or somebody falls or anything, you have to dial 911—hit the green button.” From her hospital bed, Jaden’s grandmother, who is recovering, called him an “angel.”

Leukemia patient meets blood donors

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Over the past two years, schoolteacher Alta Ray has received 93 blood transfusions at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center as part of her successful treatment to fight leukemia. Although the hospital told donors they would remain anonymous, Ray still wanted to thank them. So at its annual blood-donor-recognition lunch last week, the hospital introduced Ray to 11 of her benefactors. They included one of her three sons and David Marks, who lost his wife to renal cancer in 1997 and has been donating ever since. “Each time I received a unit of blood, I thanked the person emotionally, spiritually,” Ray said. “But I never expected to meet them.”

Cessna makes emergency landing on New Jersey Turnpike

A crippled twin-seater Cessna made a safe emergency landing on the New Jersey Turnpike this week. Frank Vogt, who monitors traffic for Philadelphia-area radio and TV stations, was flying with reporter Mike Lankford when the plane began to vibrate and the oil-pressure gauge plummeted. Unable to make it to an airport, Vogt found a clear swath of turnpike about two miles south of Exit 4 and glided in for a soft landing. Rather than brake in the middle of the road, Vogt taxied over to the shoulder. “We can’t even get motorists to do that when they break down,” said a turnpike spokesman.