Girl, 5, saves mum's life

6:58am Thursday 4th September 2008

A quick-thinking five-year-old girl helped save her mother's life when she collapsed in agony at home.

Rose Denton leapt into action as mother Jane lay crippled and barely conscious on the floor of their family house near Witney.

Mrs Denton remembers asking her daughter to get help. But the youngster couldn't reach high enough to get the phone, so she let herself out of the house and began knocking on neighbours' doors to raise the alarm.

Last night Mrs Denton, 35, of Chapel Close, Leafield, described her daughter as "a little hero".

She said: "I've got ovarian cysts and had problems since Christmas. At about 2.30pm on Sunday I started to get really bad pain - I came downstairs and collapsed on the floor in the living room.

"I had pins and needles in my face and thought I was going to pass out.

"It came from nowhere - I had stomach cramps and really heavy bleeding from the womb. I was haemorrhaging and couldn't catch my breath. It was more painful than giving birth."

Mrs Denton's husband Greg, 33, a logistics manager at BMW's plant in Cowley, had gone to Silverstone for the day, so only the couple's daughter could help.

Mrs Denton said: "Rose got a cushion and put it under my head and turned off the TV so it was all quiet. I told her to go to the phone, but she wasn't tall enough to reach.

"I was drifting in and out of consciousness and kept thinking if I passed out no-one would know what had happened."

Rose knocked on three neighbours' doors before anyone answered.

Priscilla Allmark, 66, said: "I was folding up some washing and there was a firm knock at the door. There was little Rose and she said: 'My mother needs some help.' She was calm and confident and I charged out behind her. She was brilliant."

Mrs Denton added: "I thought she would start panicking and crying because she's only five, but she took it all in her stride.

"She's a little hero.

"It could have been a lot worse. My husband wasn't expected back until 7pm. I could have been bleeding on the floor for hours. Anything could have happened."

Rose, a pupil at Leafield Primary School, said she was relieved when she found an adult.

She said: "Mum was really poorly. She had fainted on the floor and I went to get help. I wasn't scared."

Ambulance spokesman Neville Wade praised Rose's "initiative".

He said: "The impressive thing was for the child to find another adult - that really does show incredible presence of mind."

Mrs Denton was given medication to stop the haemorrhaging and put on a drip. She left Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital late on Monday night but is expected to return for further treatment.