A Maine family is calling it divine intervention that 6-year-old daughter Macie Semrau decided to skip school on the day her father experienced a life-threatening health emergency.
The Eliot Police Department praised Macie’s quick-thinking for calling local police after her father, 37-year-old Kyle Semrau, collapsed at home and lost consciousness after working late the night before.
Fortunately, Macie had decided to stay home that day. Macie said the reason she stayed home was because she missed her dad.
“I got a little bit of tearies because I started to miss my family,” Macie said. “Then my teacher saw me crying, and I told her the whole truth.”
Macie immediately rushed to her father’s aid after she heard him yelling for help in the basement. After obtaining his passcode, she was able to open his phone’s Safari browser and Google search the police’s number.
“I pressed this button and typed Eliot Police, and I hit call,” the kindergartener said. “I don’t want to say this, but I thought he was going to die.”
The department’s administrative assistant Judy Smith answered the phone, and Macie immediately gave her all of the necessary information. Police responded to the call in two minutes.
“Just incredible all around. I’m very lucky, obviously, because of my daughter and son and the (police) response,” Semrau said. “It was quick.”
Police then transported Semrau to Wentworth-Douglass Hospital, where he spent three days in the hospital and was treated with four liters of oxygen.
“It sounds like the moon and the stars aligned,” Eliot Police Chief Elliot Moya said.
Moya praised Macie’s quick decision-making and communication abilities, as she was able to stay calm and give her family’s house address while explaining that her father was having a medical emergency.
“She was like, she knew everything. She was amazing,” Moya remembered Smith telling him. “Macie potentially saved a life.”
While Macie made the call, Kyle’s four-year-old son Caleb was by his side comforting him.
“Macie called the police and I was crying a lot, and then she (Judy) heard me crying on the phone and then she said it was OK,” he said.
After regaining consciousness in the hospital, Semrau was unsure how he’d been saved. He then looked at his Google search history and found a misspelled search for “Eliot poliz” that came from his daughter.
“It’s insane. I still have it saved. If you open up my browser the way that it is spelled ‘Elliot poliz.’ When I asked her what she pushed, you see the call button, which actually goes right to the dispatcher here in town,” Semrau said. “It was incredible. I was in tears myself,” he added.
The Semrau family said they try to teach their kids about being aware of their surroundings.
The Eliot police chief told them it must be working.
“It just sounds like that’s what you’re doing is teaching awareness all around,” Moya said. “That’s amazing and clearly it’s working.”
