[chris]

A 3-year-old boy's 911 call brought help to his father after the man severed an artery with a power tool at their Keizer, Ore., home in late January 2011, according to Keizer police and fire officials.

The Willamette Valley Communication Center took the call just after 10 a.m., dispatchers said. A young child on the line said, "Hurry, my daddy needs help," then the line dropped. When a call-taker phoned back, the boy, A.J. Hayes, answered. Asked whether his father needed a police officer or an ambulance, the boy said, "OK," and hung up again. The dispatcher could hear a man screaming for help in the background, according to accounts from the communication center.

Keizer police Officer Scott Bigler arrived to find the boy's father, Aaron Hayes, leaning over a kitchen counter and bleeding heavily from his arm, officials said. Hayes had impaled his arm on a power tool while working and cut an artery. Bigler grabbed towels and applied pressure to the wound to slow the bleeding until medics reached the house, according to the department.

The Keizer Fire District sent an ambulance and an engine to the address, the district said. Hayes was taken to Salem Hospital, where he was treated and released that afternoon.

Asked afterward how he had known to call for help, the boy said, "I knew my numbers," according to Anne-Marie Penge of the Keizer Fire District.