A woman in Wayland, Michigan sent a frantic Facebook message to the Wayland Fire Department: Her son was choking, the Heimlich manoeuvre wasn’t helping, and she didn’t have access to a phone to dial 911. The page’s administrator sprung into action, responded to the message immediately, and then noticed the woman’s address: She lived in Wayland, Michigan but used Facebook Messenger to contact the Wayland, Massachusetts Fire Department by mistake, more than 1300km away. Time was ticking.
Photo: Matt Rourke (AP)
Luckily, both the distant and local Fire Departments were able to help the woman and her son. The Massachusetts Fire Department reportedly contacted the local Michigan FD, which confirmed the woman’s address and sent firefighters to help the boy.
William Tyree, the Massachusetts firefighter who fielded the messages, stayed on the app with the woman, offering her advice.
“Once we got the ambulance dispatched to her, I got back on the messenger app and tried to communicate with her, try to walk her through some instructions if she was having some trouble with the Heimlich and give her some pre-arrival instructions before the ambulance got there,” Tyree told CBS.
Photo: Wayland FD
Paramedics arrived to help the mum and her son, who reached back out to the Massachusetts FD to thank them.
“The stars were absolutely in alignment. It really did work out,” Tyree said.