--- title: 911 Dispatcher Breaks Rules to Save a Toddler's Life description: Knowing that the toddler needed immediate help, the Virginia dispatcher didn't give it a second thought canonical: https://time.com/3699728/911-dispatcher/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-06T22:21:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:56:42.688Z og:title: This 911 Dispatcher Broke the Rules to Save a Toddler's Life og:description: Hero wasn't going to let red tape get in the way of doing his duty og:url: https://time.com/3699728/911-dispatcher/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This 911 Dispatcher Broke the Rules to Save a Toddler's Life twitter:description: Hero wasn't going to let red tape get in the way of doing his duty twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This 911 Dispatcher Broke the Rules to Save a Toddler's Life > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [Kelli Bender / People](https://time.com/author/people/) ## Kelli Bender / People Contributor Feb 6, 2015 10:21 PM UTC by [Kelli Bender / People](https://time.com/author/people/) ## Kelli Bender / People Contributor Feb 6, 2015 10:21 PM UTC Tim Webb risked his job and broke the rules to save the life of 17-month-old boy. The 911 dispatcher at Virginia’s Galax Police Department recently received a frantic call from Melissa Grable, describing how her young son Aidan had suddenly become lifeless during a nap, reports [Fox2 Now](http://fox2now.com/2015/02/04/911-dispatcher-breaks-the-rules-to-save-a-toddler/). The boy, who was previously feeling ill, had suffered a seizure and stopped breathing. Sensing they only had minutes to act, the distraught mom begged Webb for directions on what to do. The dispatcher asked if anyone on the other end knew CPR. When Grable said no, Webb was left with a tough decision. Webb himself knows CPR, but the Galax Police Department does not have a emergency medical dispatch certification. This means dispatchers are prohibited from giving CPR directions over the phone. But at that moment, Webb decided the rules didn’t apply. Knowing that Aidan needed immediate help, Webb gave instructions to Grable on how to perform CPR on her son. “Without some sort of life-saving measures, the child would expire. I wasn’t gonna let that happen, even if it meant being reprimanded.” said Webb. Grable and Aidan’s grandmother carefully followed the steps and 20 minutes later, when the ambulance arrived, Aidan was breathing again. To thank Webb for his selfless choice, Aidan and his family stopped by the police department several weeks after that frightening call. The police department also applauded Webb for acting quickly and taking a risk in order to save a child’s life. “It makes you realize why you get up, why you come to work, and why you do what you do.” said Webb. _This_ [_article_](http://www.people.com/article/dispatcher-saves-toddler-cpr-breaks-rules) _originally appeared on_ [_People.com_](http://www.people.com)_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3699728/911-dispatcher/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3699728/911-dispatcher/"},"headline":"This 911 Dispatcher Broke the Rules to Save a Toddler's Life","datePublished":"2015-02-06T22:21:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:56:42.688Z","description":"Knowing that the toddler needed immediate help, the Virginia dispatcher didn't give it a second thought","url":"https://time.com/3699728/911-dispatcher/","keywords":["Living","9/11","People","emergency"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kelli Bender / People"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3699728/911-dispatcher/","name":"This 911 Dispatcher Broke the Rules to Save a Toddler's Life"}}]}] ```