Tamonyi Dixon was presented with a statewide award earlier this week.
71-year-old Dorothy Phillips is a very proud grandmother. She was right by Tamonyi’s side as her great-granddaughter received the 2018 911 Local Heroes Medal of Honor presented by California’s Office of Emergency Services.
The two live together and have been inseparable since Tamonyi was a baby.
“I love her so much, I don’t know what I’d do without her,” Phillips said.
Phillips is a diabetic and on a number of occasions Tamonyi has witnessed her fall and lose consciousness.
In one incident, Tamonyi was able to get the attention of a passerby who got her great-grandmother medical care.
“I really didn’t know where her phone was, so I wanted to help her, so I started screaming for help,” Tamonyi said.
Then in October of 2017, Phillips passed out again. This time Tamonyi immediately knew to call her church pastor who got 911 dispatch on the phone. From there, Tamonyi was able to provide the information dispatched needed to help Phillips.
“I go to a Catholic school. That school teaches me so much,” Tamonyi said. “If grandma would have passed out and I wasn’t in that school, I wouldn’t have known.”
The Office of Emergency Services praised Tamonyi for her quick thinking, compassion, and heroic actions which saved her great-grandmother’s life.
The dispatcher who took the call last year was also presented with an award.
