The little boy next door told her over and over that his mother had died.
Do you remember the first time you were taken away from your parents and made to spend time by yourself when you were a young child? It’s possible that you got lost because you lost track of where you were. Did you feel like you were going to die, or were you able to stay calm?
How ready would you have been to handle an emergency if it had happened?
A 5-year-old boy from San Tan Valley, Arizona, was able to save his mother by listening to his instincts.
A loud noise.
He did all of this without having any training, instructions, or manuals, and no door or high switch could stop him.
Salvatore Cicalese was sleeping when he heard a noise coming from the bathroom next door.
When he walked in, his mother was on the floor, not moving, and slouching over. She looked like she was out, but it was not Salvatore. He didn’t get scared, scream, or cry as other kids would have.
Looking after his little sister.
Instead, he wrapped his sister, who was only two months old at the time, in a blanket and carried her to the living room. After that, he rolled a bar stool to the garage and used it to reach the button that opens and closes the garage door.
He carried his little sister the whole way to the house of their next-door neighbor.
Jessica Penoyer, their next-door neighbor, said that she was surprised to find the kids at her front door in the middle of the night.
“He’s standing there and holding something and I thought it was a doll,” said Penner to ABC15.
Asking for help.
Penoyer was confused because she thought that he was telling her that their dog had died. But the young man insisted that it was his mother, who had died while she was taking a shower. Besides that, he asked her to take care of them.
Penoyer didn’t wait around and quickly called 911.
The first responders found the woman unconscious in the bathroom with the water running in the tub. If Salvatore hadn’t done anything, the situation would have ended in tragedy.
“Honestly he saved my life. I was under the faucet. If he wouldn’t have gotten help, I would have drowned,” Kaitlyn Cicalese, Salvatore’s mother, said to the local news channel.
Kaitlyn had an episode of seizure.
Waking up in the hospital.
After she put the kids to bed, a scary thing started to happen. Kaitlyn took a shower at the end of a long day. That’s the last thing she could remember doing.
She was surprised to find that she had already been taken to the hospital when she woke up.
When the firefighters in Rural Metro heard the story, Sal’s bravery was appreciated.
A fire truck came to their house, and a group of firefighters gave him a certificate, a helmet, and a patch for his service.
Educating others.
Sal was happy about his new job as an “honorary firefighter.” Shawn Gilleland, who works for the fire department, told him about it.
The fire department also took advantage of the chance to talk to the parents.
They said that this episode was a great example of how dangerous it can be to be around young children. The department stressed how important it was to give children a complete set of instructions and have them practice those instructions during drills so that they would know what to do in an emergency.
“Talk to them about it. What do you need to do? How do you dial 911? What are the proper uses for 911? Also, how do you get out of your house? What to do if there is a fire,” said Gilleland to ABC15.
All of his own built-in tendencies.
Even though Sal did the right thing, they have never talked to him about these steps. Sal only did what his gut told him to do and made sure that his sister and mother were safe.
Watch the video below to see the brave hero for yourself and find out more about him.
