Social media and makeshift telemedicine saved a New Zealand woman’s life this week after her fiancée saw her having an epileptic seizure via Skype from all the way in the United States.
According to the New Zealand Herald, the American, Anna Messner, was in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, chatting by Skype with fiancée Melody Madill when Madill began to have a seizure in Dunedin, New Zealand, some 8,600 miles away. Messner couldn’t summon local emergency services from where she was, so she enlisted her brother to post to Reddit.
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“Mayday need someone to call 111,” the emergency number in New Zealand, Messner’s brother posted on the New Zealand sub-Reddit. (Note: some of the responses may be offensive.)
“A friend of mine in dunedin is having a seizure, please call 111 and get someone over there,” he continued. “Let me know when it is done. I am in the USA and do not have international calling.”
It was done, and EMTs took Madill to a hospital, according to the report. Madill will be just fine, thanks to a good Samaritan. Messner and brother David Neal communicated with the paramedics through the same Skype link.
“She’s literally saved my fiancée’s life,” Messner said of the local woman who made the call.
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