A teenage girl’s quick thinking and calm demeanor saved her mother’s life after the woman lost consciousness while driving home from basketball practice on November 12. Katie Harris, 37, shared her experience on Good Morning America, recalling how she suddenly felt unwell while driving her 14-year-old daughter, Darby, home from practice.
“I don’t remember chest tightness but I remember blacking out and I said to Darby, ‘Darby, there’s something seriously wrong,’” Harris said. At first, Darby didn’t realize the severity of her mom’s condition, as she knew her mother had “low iron” levels. “I wasn’t thinking much of it, but then she said it, like, three times. I was like, ‘Yeah, she’s not right,’” Darby, a freshman at Daviess County High School in Owensboro, Kentucky.
When Harris lost consciousness and briefly blacked out, Darby immediately took action. “I helped steer the car to the side of the road,” Darby explained. Once her mother regained consciousness and parked the car, Darby called 911.
“My main focus was to stay calm, because she and my dad have always taught me how to stay calm, and me and all my siblings, they’ve always taught us to just be really calm during things like that,” Darby said to ABC News.
Harris credited Darby’s quick thinking with saving her life. “I remember being terrified. I thought at any given moment, my heart was going to give out,” Harris recalled, explaining that she didn’t have the physical strength to call for help. “She saved my life,” the mother of four added.
Harris was transported by ambulance to a local hospital and then transferred to the University of Kentucky Albert B. Chandler Hospital, where she spent nearly a week undergoing treatment. She was diagnosed with ventricular tachycardia (VT), an arrhythmia in which the heart’s ventricles beat too fast.
Doctors were uncertain about the cause but treated her with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) to regulate her heart rhythm. While Harris has had to take time off work and will undergo cardiac rehabilitation, she remains grateful. “I’m so grateful because she was able to keep me here longer, so I can keep being a part of their life,” Harris said, expressing her appreciation for her children.
She added that she hopes her story encourages parents to have important conversations with their children about handling emergencies. “Those are the two main things that kept me alive,” Harris said, referring to the calmness and faith that helped her through the ordeal.