September 15, 2026

A 3-year-old Texas girl has been honored for helping save her mom’s life during a medical emergency.

Noemi “Emi” Vatavuk was the only other person home when her mother, Aidan Wilkie, suffered a grand mal seizure at their home in Rusk, Texas.

Emi Vatavuk / Credit: WRAL

Emi may have been tiny, but she remembered something her family had taught her.

She FaceTimed her grandparents, who were nearly 700 miles away in Georgia, and they helped her contact 911.

While her grandparents stayed on the phone with her, Emi remained beside her mother and did everything she could to help.

Wilkie later recalled that she could only remember brief moments from the seizure.

“The only thing I do remember from everything was the fact that she was rubbing my hair,” Wilkie said. “I could hear briefly, ‘Mommy, it’s gonna be okay.’”

As help made its way to the apartment, Emi had another important job. She needed to get the door open.

Her grandfather told the 911 dispatcher that Emi was standing on a chair and trying to reach the deadbolt so she could unlock the door for the arriving paramedics.

“Oh my goodness. She’s doing so good,” the dispatcher said as Emi worked to get the door open.

Eventually, she succeeded.

Listen to the 911 call below:

When EMT Tim Spurgeon and the other first responders arrived, they were looking for the little girl who had been helping from inside.

“We kept getting told, ‘She’s here! She’s here!’” Spurgeon recalled.

Emi then helped guide the responders to her apartment so they could reach her mom. Spurgeon described her actions as “very courageous and very brave.”

Emi was later honored by UT Health East Texas for what she did, receiving a certificate, a teddy bear and a stethoscope.

But the person who may be most proud of her is the woman she was trying so hard to help.

“She is for sure my hero above anything else,” Wilkie said.

During the 911 call, Emi could even be heard asking, “I helped mommy?”

“Yes, you did,” her family reassured her. “You did a huge help for mommy.”

And she really did.