Katie and Addison Mather.

Image Credit: Katie Mather

By the time she realized what was happening Katie Mather had bled from the backdoor to the kitchen.

"There were pools of blood through our house," Mather told iNFOnews.ca.

Luckily, she had a saviour, her six-year-old daughter, Addison.

On May 10, Katie was home alone in Coldstream with Addison recovering from surgery she'd had early that day in Kelowna.

It was then, that one of the incisions burst, causing a lot of bleeding.

As the incision was on the back of her leg, Katie couldn't put enough pressure on it to stop the bleeding. She asked her six-year-old for help.

"She knows exactly what to do if there is a medical emergency," Katie said. "How to call 911, neighbours, she knows our address, our phone number."

Addison grabbed the phone and called 911.

"She requested an ambulance and she gave the dispatcher all the information she needed, and then she unlocked the door for the paramedics," Katie said.

Addison then headed next door to get a neighbour.

"I stayed calm... and I was fine," Addison says.

Addison says she breathed in and out and thought of things that made her happy to keep her calm.

"My mom taught me," she says proudly.

With a neighbour now putting pressure on Katie's wound and the bleeding coming to a stop, the paramedics arrived shortly afterwards.

Following a relatively quick visit to Vernon Jubilee Hospital, Katie was back home comforting Addison.

"She had a really big scare," she says adding that Addison managed to stay calm throughout.

The North Okanagan mom says she hopes other parents are teaching their children what to do in a similar situation.

"I think it's important for all children to know that and all children to have some basic knowledge of what to do in an emergency," she said. "It's so important."

As a first aid instructor, it was second nature to Katie that young children should know basic details like their address and phone number in case of an emergency and she hopes that sharing her story will encourage parents to teach their kids this basic but easily overlooked piece of information.

So what would have happened if Addison wasn't able to help?

"I would have been in a worse situation, I would have bled a lot more," Katie says.

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