A 2-year-old girl is going viral for her quick response to her dad’s diabetic emergency.
The footage, posted by her father Ymmanuel Demegillo in a clip on TikTok (@zabbiieeee), sees him semiconscious in the early stages of a hypoglycemic episode. Without being told, his toddler daughter, Zab, helped him regain consciousness.
“I was able to say, ‘I’m hypo’, but couldn’t really move,” the 31-year-old told Newsweek. “Honestly, I don’t remember that moment very clearly.”
From left: The toddler discovers her father semiconscious in bed, then runs to get glucose tablets from the living room.
@zabbiieeee
Recognizing what is happening, Zab rushes to get his glucose tablets, placing them in his mouth and encouraging him to chew.
Her capable response wasn’t luck. Demegillo told Newsweek that, at home, the family plays doctors and nurses where he pretends to be the patient.
“Through those playful moments, Zab picked up on a lot,” he said. “She knows the word ‘hypo’, and we explained it to her in a way she could understand, like when a battery is low. We’d tell her, ‘Daddy needs to be charged’, and I think that simple explanation really helped her make sense of it.”
The glucose tablets she found were also kept in a familiar spot—right by her toys in the living room. “That’s probably why it stuck with her the most,” Demegillo added.
He and his wife, both nurses, say that educating Zab through everyday moments just came naturally, but even they were surprised by how swiftly she reacted in real life.
“We were not expecting for her to act as swiftly as she did that morning, and it took my breath away,” Demegillo said. “She’s only 2, and honestly, a lot of adults wouldn’t have handled it that well.”
The footage of Zab’s bravery has gone viral on TikTok, amassing more than 4.4 million views. Almost 4,000 users commented how amazed they were by the little girl’s actions.
“She’s 2? She’s very smart, good job baby!” one user wrote.
“This little girl knows how to save a life in an emergency. Proud of you,” another posted.
But among the positive comments, some users expressed concern that the situation may have been traumatic for Zab. Demegillo said that preparation made all the difference.
“It’s tough seeing assumptions or full stories being made from just a short clip, especially without knowing the full context,” he said. “But in Zab’s case … she stayed calm and didn’t panic because she understood what was happening and knew how to respond.”
Dr. Nicholas Westers, a pediatric psychologist at Children’s Health and associate professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center, told Newsweek that assisting in a medical emergency can be traumatic for anyone, including children.
But, fortunately, most children are resilient and are unlikely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
“When very young children, such as the child in the video and those underage three, are exposed to traumatic events, they may not yet possess the verbal abilities or vocabulary necessary to solidify this event in their memory,” Westers said.
As a result, they might remember the event only through what family members recount, potentially leading to trauma symptoms. They may also experience fear around reminders of the event without being able to describe it, which can indicate trauma.
Westers said that children can display signs of traumatic stress in numerous ways, including nightmares, flashbacks, reenactment through play, lack of joy or trouble sleeping.
“If these symptoms persist more than a month, parents should seek treatment for their child because this could indicate a diagnosis of PTSD, which the child will likely not simply ‘grow out of’ without proper treatment,” he told Newsweek.
Demegillo said he hopes the moment serves as a reminder to other parents: young children are far more capable than we often give them credit for—especially when we take the time to teach and trust them.
“I am immensely proud of her and I am very thankful for her and what she has done,” he said. “In the end, we truly feel confident that we’ve done our best to prepare her for moments like this.”
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