When a 6-year-old girl refused to get dressed for kindergarten, begging to stay home with her dad, her mother decided to let her skip school. They had no idea that hours later, she would find her father’s collapsed body in the basement.
Macie Semrau, a 6-year-old kindergartener from Eliot, Maine, rarely missed school. So, when she refused to even get dressed one day, her mother decided to allow her to stay home with her father Kyle and her 4-year-old brother Caleb. The family would later be extremely thankful that the little girl refused to leave after she found her father’s collapsed body in the basement a few hours later.
As luck would have it, Macie’s refusal to go to school was a godsend when Kyle experienced a sudden medical emergency that caused him to collapse in the basement. After returning from his overnight shift, Kyle was feeling light-headed. In fact, he felt so poorly that he told his wife Kate that he would be laying low for the day with their children. However, he eventually made his way to the basement, where he would collapse. Macie was alerted to her father’s condition when she heard him shouting, and she and Caleb went to investigate.
Macie found her 37-year-old father drifting in and out of consciousness. She had him recite his phone’s passcode so she could unlock the device when he temporarily regained consciousness before fading back to black. After successfully opening his phone, she opened the Safari browser, searched for the local police department’s phone number, called the business line, and relayed pertinent information to Judy Smith, the department’s administrative assistant and a former dispatcher with Sanford’s police agency, Sea Coast Online reported.
Smith was floored by Macie’s decision-making and her ability to stay calm. The little girl listed the family’s Goodwin Road address while explaining that her father was in trouble. “She was like, ‘She knew everything. She was amazing,’” Eliot Police Chief Elliot Moya recalled Smith telling him about the 6-year-old girl. “Macie potentially saved a life,” Moya added. Meanwhile, Caleb consoled his father.
“Macie called the police, and I was crying a lot, and then she [Judy Smith] heard me crying on the phone, and then she said it was OK,” 4-year-old Caleb recalled. He also recounted how he and his sister closed the basement door so the family dogs wouldn’t rush down, then opened the doors when police arrived. Although the exact cause of the medical emergency wasn’t disclosed, Kyle Semrau explained that the incident involved issues with his sinuses, which led to difficulty breathing and remaining conscious.
Thanks to Macie, he was transported to Wentworth-Douglass Hospital, where he required four liters of oxygen and spent three days recuperating. After being treated at the hospital, Kyle opened his phone. There, he saw that his browser history contained a misspelling of the search phrase “Eliot police,” he said.
“Just incredible all around. I’m very lucky, obviously because of my daughter and son and the (police) response,” a grateful Kyle said. “It was quick,” he added, referring to police arriving in two minutes, thanks to Macie’s call. “It was incredible. I was in tears myself,” he added, referring to the extent of his daughter’s actions and son’s assistance.
Kyle isn’t the only one who was singing Macie’s praises. The Eliot Police Department also credited the young girl for her swift thinking and keen awareness. What seemed like “divine intervention” also didn’t go unnoticed. “It sounds like the moon and the stars aligned,” Eliot Police Chief Elliot Moya said while also praising the Semraus for teaching their children about awareness of their surroundings as well as typing and communication skills. “It just sounds like that’s what you’re doing is teaching awareness all around,” Moya told Kyle. “That’s amazing and clearly it’s working.”
Speaking of possible divine intervention and whether it played a part in the way things unfolded, the Semraus revealed that the incident occurred on the one-year anniversary of the death of Kate’s grandmother. “[Macie] just happened to be home. The whole thing, the whole incident, is just incredible,” Kyle admitted.
Whether you believe it was just luck, fate, or divine intervention, it was incredible indeed, and Macie is a hero — as are her parents for raising a child who knew what to do when things went terribly wrong.
All of the Semrau family deserves some praise for a job well done. As for the rest of us, this is a perfect reminder that we need to make sure our children know what to do and can get help if needed. Can your child open your phone and call the police? If not, now’s the time for them to learn.
