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Full Version: Polish toddler gets European prize for live-saving phone call
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WARSAW (AFP) - A four-year-old boy from Poland has been awarded a European prize for helping save the life of his mother by calling the emergency services, a Polish lawmaker said Tuesday.

Jacek Saryusz-Wolski said that young Krystian, whose quick thinking saved diabetic Kinga Szymanska, was to receive his honour in Brussels Tuesday from the European Emergency Number Association, which promotes the continent-wide 112 emergency number.

Last October, Krystian, who was then just three and a half, managed to telephone the number when his mother lost consciousness at their home in Lodz, in central Poland.

Emergency operator Dorota Krolak was able to stay on the line with the youngster in order to locate the call and send an ambulance.

Krolak is also to receive an award for her role in saving Szymanska's life.

As the summer vacation season looms, the European Union is trying to raise the profile of the 112 number, in the face of studies which show that only 22 percent of Europeans are aware that they can use it across the continent.

The number was introduced in 1991, in an effort to make it simpler for people to call emergency services when they travelled outside their home countries.

Previously, travellers were forced to remember an array of numbers, ranging from Britain's single 999 for all emergency services, to France's 17 for the police and 18 for the fire brigade.

The 112 line functions alongside the traditional numbers in many EU member states.
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