HONESDALE, Pa. — Leanna Yannone of Waymart was experiencing a severe allergic reaction.
"I felt like I couldn't breathe," she recalled. "I was covered in hives, and all of a sudden, I just remember calling, yelling for him."
Her son, eleven-year-old Nikolas, came running in and saw his mom struggling. Nikolas and his seven-year-old sister Alexcia called their grandfather.
Then, Nik grabbed an EpiPen.
"Any parent is going to be a little scared," Yannone said. "You can't breathe, you're kinda spinning, everything, and you've got your eleven-year-old coming at you with a needle."
Nik's grandfather walked the boy through giving the injection, but Yannone knocked the first shot out of her son's hands and onto the floor.
"When their mother knocked the EpiPen out of his hand, I said to go get the other one," Leanne's father said. "Alexcia ran down, and she got the other one, and she gave it to Nik."
"My mom taught me to like open and twist it, and there's a needle," said Nikolas O'Rourke. "You somehow like open it, and then you just stab it into her leg."
That's exactly what Nik did. Soon the kids called 911.
"We got her all ready to go in the ambulance," said Alexcia Yannone.
Nikolas spoke to dispatcher Luke from Wayne County 911, who stayed on the line with the boy until paramedics arrived.
"He was asking me if my mom was ok if she was doing fine," Nikolas said.
Nik remained calm and updated 911. His mom said he has Asperger's, a syndrome that makes communication difficult, but he kept talking during the entire 16-minute call.
"His doctor since he was four, he'll go in, and he won't talk," Leanne said. "For him to talk to him and do what he did, is amazing."
"Maybe about halfway through the call, I told my partner he deserves something," said Lucas from Wayne County 911.
The kids received a special award and recognition from the Wayne County Commissioners for their heroics.
"You couldn't be more proud, you know," Leanne said. "Because of them, I'm alive."
"If I didn't save her, she would've died," O'Rourke said.
Nik and Alexcia are encouraging other kids to step up in an emergency and call for help. For their family, picking up the phone made all the difference.
Check out WNEP's YouTube page.