Mom Couldn’t Keep Son’s Blood Sugar Under Control, Eventually, She Called 911 — on Herself

On the evening of July 31, a mom of four placed a 911 call about an emergency she was having at her Utah home. But the call wasn’t about a fire in the kitchen, a break-in by an intruder or one of her kids experiencing a medical episode.

Instead, Kylie Grimes, who felt alone and overwhelmed after a particularly difficult night at home, contacted authorities because she needed help — and didn’t know who else to call.

Kylie’s 911 call, which was first reported on by Today, was the peak of the emotional roller coaster that she and her husband Kyle had been on since the start of this year.

Two of the couple’s children — son Noble, 15 months, and daughter Goldie, 6 — were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes within months of each other, even though there’s no history of the condition in their family, the couple tells PEOPLE.

In April, Noble, then 7 months, had parainfluenza and walking pneumonia and was taken to the hospital for a three-night stay.

About three weeks later, when the couple’s older kids — Goldie, Royal, 10, and Ellie, 11 — were off to school, Noble began vomiting at home. At the time, Kylie, a 35-year-old stay-at-home mom, assumed he had a stomach flu, but out of precaution, the couple brought him back to the hospital, where he was later diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

As Kylie and Kyle, 38, were learning how to navigate their son’s chronic condition, another shock came 63 days later when the kids were all playing with his glucose monitor to check their own blood sugar levels.

When Goldie tested herself, the number came to be 416 (The normal blood sugar level for a 6-year-old child is about 90 to 180).

Medical professionals told Kylie to bring Goldie to the hospital, where she too received her diagnosis.

For Kylie, staying home to take care of four kids — especially two with diabetes — while her husband was away at his job running a cleaning business left her sleep deprived and stressed on a regular basis. But up until that point, she says she never hesitated about being the one to “take everything on.”

Things came to a head on the night of July 31 when Kylie was alone with her children and having trouble keeping Noble’s blood sugar under control.

“Before I know it,” she says, “I am looking at the clock and it’s like 9, and I haven’t made dinner for anyone. So we’re way past bedtime now.”

Kylie asked her older kids to watch Noble for a minute so she could start dinner. But about three minutes later, another crisis came up. “

“[Noble] had come crawling to my feet and I turned around and his face is all black,” says Kylie. “I came walking over to the side and my kids were all gone. No one was watching the baby, and he had gotten into my plant. He was eating potting soil.”

She immediately called poison control who talked her through the situation and told her that Noble likely hadn’t ingested enough to cause harm. Still, after the call with poison control, Kylie says she found herself sitting on the kitchen floor crying.

“My kids come up to me and they’re asking where dinner is, and I just completely lose it,” she recalls.

Hyperventilating and overwhelmed, she called her husband, telling him that she needed him to come home and help her. “He’s like, ‘I’m 30 minutes away.’ I said, ‘That’s not long enough’ — and I hung up the phone,” she said.

That’s when Kylie called 911.

“The dispatcher’s like, ‘Okay, where’s the emergency?’ And I said, ‘I just can’t do this anymore. I’m overwhelmed. I just need help,’ ” Kylie recalls. “She’s like, ‘I don’t understand what’s the emergency?’ And I said, ‘Me. I’m the emergency.’ “

Asked if she was going to hurt herself or her kids, Kylie said of course not, she just needed a minute, but also wanted to make sure her kids were safe.

The dispatcher remained on the phone with Kylie, who told her three older kids to stay inside in the house while she sat on the porch and held Noble. A few minutes later, an officer showed up at the house, followed by other first responders, as Kylie sobbed.

“I can’t even answer the officer, because I’m like, ‘What do I say? I’m overwhelmed as a mom.’ That sounds like the stupidest thing in the world,” she says.

When Kyle got home, first responders were gathered around his wife.

After determining that she wasn’t a threat to herself or her family, they put Kylie on the phone with a social worker who gave her information and resources. “We get off the phone and I go back up the stairs,” Kylie says, “and I put my kids to bed and I put myself to bed.”

That night was a bit of a reality call for Kylie.

“This was the first time that I was like, ‘I can’t do this by myself,’ ” she says, adding that since then she’s “gotten better about asking for help.”

After the incident, Kyle’s mom came to stay with them and a neighbor volunteered to do some chores. Additionally, Kylie says Kyle has also leaned in more.

“People [were] showing up for us when I am desperately trying to figure out how to care for my wife as she’s desperately trying to care for our children,” Kyle says.

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Earlier this year, Kylie began posting daily accounts of their lives on social media — and in August, a month after the 911 call, she shared an image on TikTok showing herself sitting on her porch with a first responder next to her. The caption read: “I called the cops on myself.”

Making that post felt “extremely vulnerable,” but Kylie says she’s also had people reach out to her saying the post helped them and to thank her for being so open.

The couple now looks to raise awareness about infant diabetes and caregiver burnout while fostering community with others going through similar circumstances.

“One of our biggest things through this experience is, ‘It’s okay to not be okay.’ Hopefully this story can reach one more person to realize ‘You’re not alone,’ ” Kyle says.

“To be open and honest with our feelings can help your life and help save another,” Kylie says. “Vulnerability is a strength, not a weakness. That’s what maybe I’ve gotten the most out of this is realizing that there’s so much more people that have been at my stage and have been in so much pain. And that’s what we need in this life is more human connection because it’s what we’re here for.”