Listen to 6-Year-Old's Call to Ambulance for Ill Mom That 'Saved Her Life'

A six-year-old British girl saved her mother's life by calling for an ambulance when she suffered a potentially fatal asthma attack.

Cali-Maii Ball, from Hornchurch in London, woke up in the middle of the night when she heard her mother Lauren, 25, desperately gasping for air.

She then picked up her mother's phone and called 999—the U.K. equivalent of 911—to ask for help.

"I think my mum is having an asthma attack," she told London Ambulance Service (LAS) call handler Laura Lehmer. "Mummy is really struggling to breathe."

Asthma is a disease that affects the lungs and can cause repeated episodes of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness and nighttime or early morning coughing. It can be controlled with medication and by avoiding environmental triggers but when someone suffers an asthma attack, the muscles around the airways tighten up. They become irritated, swollen and produce mucus, which makes it difficult to breathe.

Cali-Maii told Lehmer her exact address and later unlocked the door to let paramedics in.

The paramedics then immediately started treating her mother, who was losing consciousness. Ball was then taken to Queen's Hospital where she was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit and was put on a ventilator, according to the LAS.

Newsweek has contacted the LAS for comment via email.

"Cali saved my life. If it wasn't for her calling 999 so quickly and the paramedics intervening so promptly, this would have been a really different story. I'll never be able to show them all how grateful I am for saving me," Ball said

She stayed in the hospital for six days to reduce the risk of a similar asthma attack from happening again and will start a new injection treatment in the near future.

Cali-Maii was subsequently reunited with two of the paramedics who gave her an award, recognizing her quick thinking.

"Cali-Maii is a real hero. A few extra minutes could have cost her mother her life," paramedic Sam Taylor said. "Lauren was very close to going into cardiac arrest and it was Cali's incredibly quick cry for help that saved her."

Ball, a mother of two, was diagnosed with asthma at the age of six and has called for parents across the U.K. to teach their children about what to do in an emergency.

"Cali's actions were life-changing and if our story can help even one more parent get the help they need in a life-threatening situation. I'd be over the moon," Ball said.