Docto

In the House

A 9-year-old wasn't rattled when
his grandmother became ill.

BARBARA LEWIS
Special to the Jewish News

M

argelee Ruby feels
she's alive because of
her 9-year-old grand-
son. His quick think-
ing and calm reaction helped get
her prompt medical attention after
she suffered a massive heart attack.
No one foresaw any health prob-
lems for Ruby, of West Bloomfield,
a healthy 73-year-old whose friends
tell her she looks 10 years younger.
She swims three days a week at the
Jewish 'Community Center, plays
tennis, and bikes with her five
grandchildren. She had no history
of heart disease or other serious ill-
ness.
Ruby had spent the evening of
Sunday, Aug. 12, with her daugh-
ter's family in Bloomfield Hills. At
10 p.m., when she was getting ready
to leave, her grandson, Robert
Berman, asked to go with her.
"He said, 'I just have to sleep at
Bubbie's house,"' she recalled.
The next morning, Ruby gave
Robert his breakfast, then headed to
the living room to read the newspa-
per.
"I felt strange," she said. "I was
sweating and felt dizzy. I called my
daughter and told her I wasn't feel-
ing well. Then I went into the bath-
room and threw up, and that was
that.
Ruby passed out and didn't
regain consciousness for several

hours. She doesn't remember the
ambulance ride to St. Joseph Mercy
Hospital in Pontiac or the emer-
gency room treatment.
Ruby's daughter, Joyce, realized
something was wrong right away.
She called 911 and then called her
mother back and got Robert on the
line. "Go check on Bubbie," she
said, "and then go outside and wait
for the ambulance."
Robert, a fourth grader at
Bloomfield Hills' Conant
Elementary School, took towels
from the bathroom racks to pillow
his grandmother as she lay on the
floor and placed a wet washcloth on
her forehead, then opened the
garage door and waited in front of
Ruby's house. He directed the
ambulance crew to his grandmother
and showed them where she kept
her estrogen supplement pills, the
only medication she was taking.
"I was pretty scared," said
Robert, "but it wasn't that bad. I
just did what my mom told me."
Two ambulances, a fire truck and
police cars converged on the house.
The emergency crew, who visited
Ruby in the hospital, called Robert
a "little hero," said Ruby.
"All I know is I wouldn't be here
if it weren't for him."

❑

Margelee Ruby and
grandson Robert Berman

10/12
2001

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