VAN BUREN, Ark. — After falling inside her Greenwood home Wednesday, March 2, morning, 77-year-old Verna Vass tried to make a call for help, but instead made a call to a stranger about 25 miles away in Van Buren.
"She asked for I believe Sheryll," said Lynn Rowe, the woman who answered Verna’s distressed call.
Verna meant to call her daughter Sherrym Crippen, who lives 15 minutes away.
“This is kind of odd, but I got a voice call from somebody and I didn't know who it was,” Rowe said to Sebastian County Dispatch. “And I told them it was the wrong number and she said she was on the floor and couldn't get up."
Verna only has a few family members and a 911 number saved in her phone. So Sherry says she has no clue how Verna made the call to Rowe.
"I told her if she'd give me her address, I would call to see if I could get somebody out there to help her," Rowe said.
Rowe gave Sebastian County Dispatch Verna's address who sent an EMS truck her way to help.
"To not know how to use a smartphone, but she remembered where she lived,” Crippen said. “I thought that was just the saving grace."
Crippen calls Rowe's actions amazing and saved her mom from even more pain.
"I'm extremely grateful that she answered, and I just imagine her to be the kind of person that my mom is,” Crippen said. “If someone told her that they needed help, she wouldn’t hesitate to make a phone call or do what she needed to, to help someone."
"It just happened to be that I was able to get her some help and I'm glad,” Rowe said.
A Greenwood officer was later dispatched to the home and helped Verna get up. Crippen says her nephew was in the home at the time of the accident and says she is not sure why Verna never called for him to help.
In the meantime, Crippen says she is now looking for a nursing home for her mom allowing her to have help 24/7.
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