Eight year-old Jesus Lorenzo says he wants to be a firefighter when he grows up. And that profession should be right up his alley, given his remarkable capacity to think on his feet and stay cool under pressure.
Lorenzo, a third-grader at the William E. Russell School on Columbia Road, has repeatedly come to the aide of his mother, Melissa, who has developed a mysterious ailment that prompts her to have seizures while sleeping. The mother of three says that she developed the condition during the pregnancy of her four year-old daughter. Since he was 5 years-old, Jesus has seen his mother experience seizures and he has been taught what to do: Call 911. He’s had to do it on several occasions.
Around 6 a.m. Monday morning, it happened again. Jesus woke up and noticed that his mommy was struggling in her bed, making funny noises. He sprung into action, dialing the emergency number, guiding the operator to the right address for his family’s three-decker home on Centre Street.
“They told me to turn her over on her side,” Jesus recalled.
When two young EMTs showed up at the door, Jesus calmly let them in, brought them to his mother’s room and then explained her medical history to them, since she was still too dazed to speak. He then helped his little sister, Jelissa, get dressed for a ride in the ambulance to Carney Hospital.
At a press conference arranged by Boston EMS on Tuesday afternoon, Jesus quickly charmed a swarm of typically stone-faced media types who gathered on the sidewalk in front of the family’s home. It was a light-hearted event. Still, passersby and some neighbors looked on anxiously, no doubt wondering what new calamity had befallen the neighborhood.
Rich Serino, the chief of Boston EMS, explained that his department wanted to highlight Jesus’s heroics, in part, to encourage parents across the city to instruct their youngsters about what to do in an emergency. But, Serino said, it was also a chance to show city kids in a better light.
“It’s the story of the city,” Serino said. “There’s all these kids who do the right thing – and not just when there’s an emergency. Jesus is a great kid. He’s the hero of the day.”
Jesus credited his father and grandmother with teaching him how to cope with the moments of crisis that have now become fairly routine in his young life. Serino and his EMTs presented Jesus with a t-shirt, a certificate, a badge, and all kinds of EMT paraphernalia. Best of all, he got a new bike helmet – and one for his little sister, too. It’s still summertime and – as much as he enjoyed his sudden fam – Jesus wanted to get back to doing what he likes best: playing.
