Boy Learns To Call 911 From Sponge Bob Square Pants Cartoon and Saves Father

click to read full story from Fox 8
NORTH RIDGEVILLE, Ohio —

Vincent Lamitie, 3, of North Ridgeville, was home alone with his dad when his father passed out and fell down the basement stairs last Sunday. Without hesitation, somehow, the young boy knew to call 911.

"I fell down the stairs," Vincent's father, Vince Lamitie, explained. "I must have turned around to go back downstairs, and I landed on the floor, I guess. I don't remember nothing. The only thing I remember is waking up, and my head was really hurting. My side (and) my nose (were also hurting), and my son was leaning over me, talking to someone on the phone."

Vincent's parents still don't know how he learned to call 911 because they never taught him, thinking he was too young to understand. The only thing they can figure out is perhaps he learned it from a cartoon.

When asked how he knew what to do in the emergency situation, Vincent replied, "Sponge Bob calls 911."

Not only did Vincent have the wherewithal to call 911, he also had the composure to go to the door and unlock it so that the paramedics could get into the house.

"I wasn't planning on being home anytime soon, so it's a good thing somebody called 911 because my husband would have been laying there a long time," said Vincent's mother, Jackie Lamitie.

"If he hadn't called, I would have laid there until midnight," Vince realized.

The family said Vince is recovering from a sore back, sore ribs and a concussion. His injuries put him in the hospital, but he hopes to return home to his family in a few days.

Worst Whooping Cough Outbreak In 60 Years Says Experts

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(CNN) -- Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, has claimed the 10th victim in California, in what health officials are calling the worst outbreak in 60 years.

Since the beginning of the year, 5,978 confirmed, probable and suspected cases of the disease have been reported in California.

All of the deaths occurred in infants under the age of 3 months, says Michael Sicilia, a spokesman for the California Department of Public Health. Nine were younger than 8 weeks old, which means they were too young to have been vaccinated against this highly contagious bacterial disease.

"This is a preventable disease," says Sicilia, because there is a vaccine for whooping cough to protect those coming in contact with infants, and thereby protect the infants.

However, some parents are choosing to not vaccinate their children. In other cases, previously vaccinated children and adults may have lost their immunity because the vaccine has worn off.

The vaccine "does not protect you for life," explains Alison Patti, a spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Sicilia says California Health Department epidemiologists estimate 50 percent of the children who have gotten sick were infected by their parents or caregivers.

According to the recommended vaccine schedule for infants, newborns don't get their first pertussis vaccine until they are 2 months old, leaving them vulnerable to infection until then if the people surrounding them are infected.

"That's why the real important message is -- whether it's a mom, dad, sibling, grandfather or grandmother that comes in contact with these really young babies -- all the close contacts, including the health care professionals, need to vaccinated," says Patti. It's called the "cocooning strategy," where the newborns are protected because the older people around them have been vaccinated and protected from pertussis, and therefore won't pass it on to little babies.

Pertussis, or whooping cough, is a highly contagious disease caused by bacteria that can lead to severe upper respiratory infections. The bacteria is spread in tiny droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes.

Initial symptoms are very similar to a cold, but a week or two later, a violent cough develops.

"If you've ever seen a child with pertussis, you won't forget it" -- that's how the American Academy of Pediatrics explains what whooping cough is on its website. The academy says a child with the disease coughs so hard and so often "until the air is gone from his/her lungs and he/she is forced to inhale with the loud 'whooping' sound that gives the disease its nickname."

Mega Church Crystal Cathedral Files For Bankrupcy

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GARDEN GROVE, Calif. -- Crystal Cathedral, the megachurch birthplace of the televangelist show "Hour of Power," filed for bankruptcy Monday in Southern California after struggling to emerge from debt that exceeds $43 million.

In addition to a $36 million mortgage, the Orange County-based church owes $7.5 million to several hundred vendors for services ranging from advertising to the use of live animals in Easter and Christmas services.

The church had been negotiating a repayment plan with vendors, but several filed lawsuits seeking quicker payment, which prompted a coalition formed by creditors to fall apart, church officials said.

"Tough times never last, every storm comes to an end. Right now, people need to hear that message more than ever," Sheila Schuller Coleman, the Cathedral's senior pastor and daughter of the founder, told reporters outside the worship hall.

"Everybody is hurting today. We are no exception," she said.

The church, founded in the mid-1950s by the Rev. Robert H. Schuller Sr., has already ordered major layoffs, cut the number of stations airing the "Hour of Power" and sold property to stay afloat. In addition, the 10,000-member church canceled this year's "Glory of Easter" pageant, which attracts thousands of visitors and is a regional holiday staple.

Vendors owed money by the church formed a committee in April and agreed to a moratorium to negotiate a repayment plan with the Crystal Cathedral.

Kristina Oliver, whose Hemet-based company provided live animals for the church's "Glory of Christmas" manger scene, said she doubts she will recover in full the $57,000 she is owed.

"The church never made any kind of advancement that they wanted to pay their debt, that they were willing to try to make it happen and every time we tried they told us, 'You can't tell us how to run our business,"' Oliver said.

"I'm upset because I have a 30-year relationship with them and you need to be up front, put all your cards on the table."

Crystal Cathedral was founded at a drive-in theater and attracted congregants with its sermons on the power of positive thinking. It features a soaring glass spire and is an architectural wonder and tourist destination.

The "Hour of Power" telecast, filmed in the cathedral's main sanctuary, at one point attracted 1.3 million viewers in 156 countries.

Church leaders said the telecast and Sunday services will continue while in bankruptcy.

Crystal Cathedral and other megachurches have suffered from the recession and reduced charitable giving

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