Girl, 4, runs ¼ mile in dark after dad knocked out

IRON MOUNTAIN (AP) — A former volunteer firefighter says his 4-year-old daughter helped save his life when she ran a quarter-mile for help after he was knocked unconscious.

Chris Lucas of Iron Mountain in the Upper Peninsula says his daughter Cadence was with him as he was unloading scrap metal from his truck Oct. 15 and he hit his head.

“I got out of the truck to take the stuff out, and I think I dropped something underneath the tailgate,” The Daily News reported Wednesday. “After that, I don’t really remember what happened.”

Chris later learned that he had hit his head on either an old hot water heater or his truck’s tailgate and was knocked unconscious.

While he was knocked out, Cadence ran about a quarter-mile down a dirt road to the nearest neighbor. The neighbor called an ambulance and went to check on him, Lucas said.

He spent the night in the hospital for treatment of a concussion and a head bump.

“Most kids would have sat there until their parent woke up,” Lucas said. “She took the initiative to run out even though it was dark.”

Cadence was too shy to say much about her experience, but her father said that everyone involved noted how calm she was the entire time.

“She knows the property, and she told me she had seen headlights in the neighbor’s yard,” he said. “That’s probably why she went over there.”

Lucas said that because he has experience as a volunteer firefighter and Cadence’s mother works for an ambulance service, they have always coached Cadence about what to do in case of emergencies.

“We work with her on 911, and she knows our names and phone numbers,” Lucas said. “I thought it was kind of cool she remembered that.”