Sometimes the biggest acts of bravery come from the smallest of heroes. When Yolanda Cook was taking her daughter to her grandmother’s house, it was just a normal drive on a normal day in Mississippi. That is, until Yolanda suddenly experienced a stroke and a seizure. The car she was driving ran off the road and into the woods before finally coming to a stop, quite a distance from the road they had been traveling on. 

Six-year-old Bryanna Cook didn’t know what was happening. “I was scared … when I looked around, we was in the woods because we just fell off the road and my mom couldn’t wake up or respond,” she said. Spotting her mom’s cell phone, Bryanna knew what to do next. She called her grandmother who told the scared child to quickly call 911.

Bryanna Cook and her mother Yolanda Cook talk about the health scare and Bryanna’s brave actions she took to save her mom. Photo by ABC News

Latonya Malone was working in the emergency call center when Bryanna called. “I had Bryanna on the phone trying to get her to check on her mom, to see what was wrong and what happened,” Malone said.

And she said that her mom got sick and they ran off the road and they didn’t see anything.”

Bryanna described her surroundings to Malone, who relayed the information to first responders. The little girl told them how far the car was from the road they had been on, and how her mother was doing. Malone said that she used her personal cell phone to call Bryanna’s grandmother, since she couldn’t hang up on the six-year-old.

“Bryanna was able to tell us where they were going and the grandmother helped, too, because she told us around where they were at the time” based on when they left home, Malone said. For more than two hours, Bryanna stayed on the phone with Malone while rescuers looked for the pair. Bryanna said she tried to help her mother. She opened the car doors to let fresh air in.

“I tapped her on the face to see if she would wake up, but she didn’t,” Bryanna said. Rescuers finally located the mother and daughter, Malone said. Yolanda was taken to a nearby hospital and then airlifted to North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo. And just like after the car accident, Bryanna didn’t leave her mother’s side until she was released from the hospital. “I helped my mom because I saved her,” Bryanna said.

At the hospital, I helped her get out of bed and walked with her down the hallways because I love her.”

The little girl and her mother got to meet their rescuers, as well as Malone, when the county honored Bryanna for her actions with a certificate.

Left, Latonya Malone, the 911 operator who helped Bryanna Cook speaks with the little girl at an award ceremony. Photo by Fairview Elementary PTO

Yolanda said that she is proud of her daughter. “That’s a lot for a six-year-old, just from what they were saying. And there were a couple of adults that [were like], ‘I don’t even know if I could have been as brave as Bryanna was and held my composure like she did in order to get help on the scene,'” she said.

Yolanda is recovering at home now and nearly back to normal, she said. “The stroke that I had the day of the accident was not my first. So I have been very, very blessed to not have any long-term effects from any of them,” she said. Yolanda said she has a message to other parents – make sure your kids can use a phone in the case of an emergency.

“It’s important for children to know how to use the phone, to know phone numbers … to know how to, in an emergency situation if they need to, in order to text if they can’t get the person on the phone and to know the number 911,” she said. Watch below to see the brilliant little girl talk about that scary day and her very heroic actions!

Sources: Good Morning America | NY Post