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Video: Three-year-old saves dad's life after calling 911

Shawn Powers had mistakenly sliced through an archery with a machete while clearing a downed tree in his back garden

Tomas Jivanda
Friday 28 February 2014 15:43 GMT
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Shawn Powers was unable to call 911 as one arm was sliced open and the other was trying to stop the bleeding
Shawn Powers was unable to call 911 as one arm was sliced open and the other was trying to stop the bleeding

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A father owes his life to his young daughter after she called 911 following an accident which left him with a severed archery and losing blood fast.

Shawn Powers was using a machete to clear a tree that had fallen down in the back garden of his family home in Georgia when disaster struck.

While holding a branch in one hand and cutting with the other, he got momentarily distracted - a short lapse in concentration that caused him to mistakenly slice into his wrist, cutting through arteries, nerves and tendons.

With one hand incapacitated and the other being used to stop blood from spurting from the wound, he was unable to call an ambulance.

Luckily, he had taught his then three-year-old daughter Elisha to call 911 in an emergency just months earlier and she was able to grab his mobile phone, unlock it and make the call.

She then held the phone to her father's ear so he could explain the situation.

"I'm afraid to move my hand because I'm bleeding a lot. I can feel the blood coming through my fingers. There's a lot of blood everywhere," Mr Powers told the operator.

Thanks to his daughter, Mr Powers is now set to make a full recovery in six to eight months.

"I've been telling her time and time again, 'You're my hero. Elisha, you're my hero,'" he added.

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