"Reassuring call operator"

On an overnight stay at a guesthouse my son awoke after 4 am struggling to breathe. He’s had croup since he was small so I felt that I knew what way things would pan out, I was to be proved wrong. I rang the doctor on call and in the few minutes it took for them to call me back my son had deteriorated rapidly. I was advised to hang up and dial 999 straight away.

I’m a nurse, and like to think I remain calm in a crisis, this too would be challenged by my son’s worsening condition. That is until I called 999 and was put through to the calming voice on the other end of a line. I was told that although the service was busy, this operator would stay on the line with me for as long as he could. And for 25 mins that voice stayed on a call with me; talked me through everything I could do to keep my son comfortable, calmed me down when I couldn’t remember the address of the guesthouse we were staying in and when the time came for him to hang up as he needed to answer another call, he reassured me I was doing what I could for my son and that help was on the way.

The voice at the end of the line will probably never know how thankful I was to have him with me for what seemed like an eternity that night.