By Gerri Miller
Staff Writer
The quick action of a Pine Level Elementary School (PLES) second grader may have saved his mother’s life.
Holly Johnson was making one of her usual trips driving down I-65 two weeks ago along with her eight-year-old son Tatum Johnson. Her parents live in Birmingham and they sometimes meet in the middle in Jemison. Holly had made it halfway between Verbena and Clanton when an emergency struck. She had an asthma attack and she wasn’t carrying her inhaler.
“For me not to carry my inhaler was not that uncommon,” Holly said. “I knew that we had just a short drive to meet my parents so I didn’t think to put it in my purse.”
“I pulled off the Interstate because I felt like I was breathing through a straw that was gradually closing,” she said. Tatum asked his mom where her inhaler was located. By this point, Holly could no longer speak but through gestures made Tatum understand she didn’t have it with her.
Holly said that all she could think about was that she was about to die and leave her child alone by the side of the busy interstate.
But Tatum sprang into action instead. He unbuckled his seat belt and jumped into the back seat and got his own inhaler out of his backpack. He gave her the first pump of the inhaler and after a few minutes Holly became more coherent. He gave her water as he had been taught to do.
Holly said at the time she didn’t even remember that Tatum had an inhaler in his backpack.
As soon as he saw she was okay, Tatum unlocked his mother’s cell phone and called his father. Luckily, Holly had a tracking app on her phone called Life360 which shows on a map where each member of the family is located. “He didn’t freak out, he just went into action,” Holly said. “We try to teach our kids what to do in different scenarios and he used that knowledge.”
She said PLES has reinforced that education by talking to the students about different safety and health issues. “This is the first time that Tatum has had to deal with an emergency situation because of my asthma,” Holly said.
Dean Faust, the children’s pastor at Church at the Brook, said, “Tatum has a lot of energy and knowledge for a child his age. He’s really a good kid.”
Holly and her husband Blake Johnson are the youth pastors at Church at the Brook in Millbrook. They also have five-year-old twins named Aubrey and Aaron who are also taught safety rules. Aubrey also has asthma and was hospitalized with an attack in February 2020 just before COVID-19 hit. Tatum’s role was to stand outside and give signals for the paramedics.
Tatum is a straight-A student who loves to paint, ride bikes and roller blade. He takes Taekwondo, which Holly said has given him much more confidence. He goes to Tiger Rock in Prattville and is learning under Senior Master Kevin Crutchfield
“It teaches you how to handle yourself in stressful situations,” she said. “It also teaches children to be unafraid to talk or give a presentation to a group. He also knows how to defend himself if a stranger makes him fearful.”
What does Tatum want to be when he grows up? A paramedic, of course! “He’s just a really good kid,” Holly said. “He has great critical thinking skills and thirsts for knowledge. I am proud of the young man he’s becoming.”
