Mother says Siri helped save the life of her baby girl

[midian182]

Virtual assistants such as Siri sometimes get criticised for not being as helpful as their creators claim. But one Australian woman has thanked Apple for its voice-activated program, after it helped save the life of her one-year-old baby.

Stacey Gleeson’s daughter, Giana, had been battling a chest infection and bronchiolitis. When her mother noticed on the baby monitor that she had turned blue, Stacey ran into Giana’s room to help her.

In a panic, Gleeson dropped her iPhone 6s as she turned on the light. She found that her daughter was no longer breathing.

"I picked her up and sat down with her on the floor and as I checked her airways [...] I looked over and remembered my phone,” Mrs Gleeson told 7 News. As she began CPR on Giana, she shouted: “Hey Siri, call the ambulance.”

By the time the paramedics arrived, Giana was breathing again. Doctors confirmed that there was no lasting damage, but every second saved had been vital. Gleeson said that had she not dropped the iPhone, she would have likely struggled to dial the number in her frantic state.

"Saving me the trouble of having to physically dial emergency services was a godsend," she told the BBC.

The incident took place in March, but only hit the headlines this week after Gleeson contacted Apple, which alerted the Australian news outlet.

"As cheesy as it sounds I wanted to say thank you," she said. "I had played around with Siri, I thought it was a fun feature. Now I have that feature turned on all the time and it will never be turned off again."

Not everyone enables voice-activated services on their smartphones, as some worry about accidently launching them. The 7 News report that aired the story had to censor out the words “Hey, Siri,” to avoid triggering the assistant on the iPhones of viewers at home. But cases like the Gleeson's show just how valuable these programs' abilities can be.

"Everybody should be aware of the abilities of their phone," said the girl's father, Nic Gleeson.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/65139-mother-siri-helped-save-life-baby-girl.html

 

[alabama man]

At least on my phone it has button for emergency services in the lock screen, requires one swipe and one push. Just tried took under 1 second to start the call. Apple fan just trying to explain why she uses more money on inferior products.

 

[madboyv1]

At least on my phone it has button for emergency services in the lock screen, requires one swipe and one push. Just tried took under 1 second to start the call. Apple fan just trying to explain why she uses more money on inferior products.

Can't we just be happy someone used technology in a pinch to protect the well being (and possibly life) of their child? I guess if her phone had fallen behind something like a dresser or otherwise completely out of reach it would have been different?

 

[davislane1]

At least on my phone it has button for emergency services in the lock screen, requires one swipe and one push. Just tried took under 1 second to start the call. Apple fan just trying to explain why she uses more money on inferior products.

Can't we just be happy someone used technology in a pinch to protect the well being (and possibly life) of their child? I guess if her phone had fallen behind something like a dresser or otherwise completely out of reach it would have been different?

This topic falls under the category of Religion (see: Sports, Politics, and Religion: How to Start Arguments and Petty Squabbles). Any attempt to prevent fanboy/hater comments or respond to them rationally is futile.

 

[Trillionsin]

At least on my phone it has button for emergency services in the lock screen, requires one swipe and one push. Just tried took under 1 second to start the call. Apple fan just trying to explain why she uses more money on inferior products.

Can't we just be happy someone used technology in a pinch to protect the well being (and possibly life) of their child? I guess if her phone had fallen behind something like a dresser or otherwise completely out of reach it would have been different?

Nah, I'm going to side with Alabama man here. This article (kind of) silly. I've accidentally called 911 so many times from my pocket. They called me back and left a message telling me to put a lock on it. Its got a lock on it. Its just that I had an app that when my screen woke, it wouldnt go back to sleep. Problems been solved, however, not until after I accidentally dialed 911 several times. lol I wanted to call them back and tell them, but yea, who calls 911 back to argue with them? lol

 

[p51d007]

At least on my phone it has button for emergency services in the lock screen, requires one swipe and one push. Just tried took under 1 second to start the call. Apple fan just trying to explain why she uses more money on inferior products.

Can't we just be happy someone used technology in a pinch to protect the well being (and possibly life) of their child? I guess if her phone had fallen behind something like a dresser or otherwise completely out of reach it would have been different?

Nah, I'm going to side with Alabama man here. This article (kind of) silly. I've accidentally called 911 so many times from my pocket. They called me back and left a message telling me to put a lock on it. Its got a lock on it. Its just that I had an app that when my screen woke, it wouldnt go back to sleep. Problems been solved, however, not until after I accidentally dialed 911 several times. lol I wanted to call them back and tell them, but yea, who calls 911 back to argue with them? lol

I was a volunteer 911 operator for over a dozen years (200,000 population). You'd be surprised the number of people that call back after either accidentally dial 911, or call back to complain about something.
911 was originally suppose to be for EMERGENCIES ONLY, but, most agencies have taken down their non emergency numbers from the public (even though most still have them) because they were afraid people would call the non emergency number when it was an emergency, and the time for a non emergency dispatcher to take a call, when the non emergency line is tied up with other calls, could hinder getting the help needed.
On the flip side, it puts a lot of strain on the 911 system, when you have people calling to complain about a barking dog, loud music etc. It's why most 911 dispatchers answer the phone "what's the nature of your EMERGENCY". Not that the public knows the difference. When they call, they think they should be call #1,
regardless of the issue.

 

[madboyv1]

Oh I know people use 911 for the dumbest things I can only imagine what some of those self centered, ludicrous calls you've taken p51d007 lol... People don't realize that practically every local police department (in the US anyways) have a non-emergency number you can use for those kinds of things (which I have saved in my phone). Plus, this is not about accidentally calling 911, which I imagined even before Trillionsin's example is unfortunate and commonplace, but the intentional use as a call for help.

 

[noc81]

Really, how is this news..? Headline: Australian woman realizes she can use Siri

Seriously, though.. Can this really be the first time this has happened? Don't all voice-assistants offer this functionality? Would this even be news if it wasn't involving Apple, who hasn't had a drop of good press in the last 2 years?

It's garbage, pointless, non-news articles like this that chased me away from DailyTech. This is no more news than the article you ran months back when TPB was put on Google's malware site list for a day or two. Get yer crap together, TS! If you can't find any news, just steal it from Ars or TheReg, as per usual!