Nine-year-old helps save mother.

In July 2004, nine-year-old Katlyn Nelson of Baltimore gingerly crept downstairs after being awakened in the middle of the night by a violent commotion. She found her mother lying on the living room floor, soaked in blood. Despite her mother's frightening condition, the girl remembered a lesson she had learned in school and called 911.

"My mom is beat up to death," Katlyn told Fritz Fertig, the Baltimore County 911 dispatcher. "She is bleeding all over. Please!"

"I thought that for someone that young that was amazing that she was able to think in those [clear] terms during this time, when it was an emergency," Fertig said in an ABC News report.

Afterward, Katlyn recalled her thoughts during the crisis: "I thought that if I answered every question maybe they'll get here quicker."

According to the ABC report, Katlyn said: "It was hard, I mean, seeing your morn like that, it's really hard. My mind kind of went blank at first, but then I thought I had to call someone. I knew a lot of people wouldn't be up, so the only place was 911."

The attacker was Michael Hall, a powerful, 220-pound man Katlyn's mother, Kari Nelson, had known since junior high school. The two had dated for a while, but when Nelson ended the relationship, Hall started stalking her. When he observed another man escort Kari home, he exploded in a jealous rage. Kari Nelson told reporters that Hall had stomped on her head, splitting her lip, cutting her eye, and breaking her nose and other bones in her face. He then got a knife from the kitchen and stabbed her in the neck and groin, severing both carotid arteries. When the rescue team found her, they thought she was a redhead, instead of a blonde, because her hair was saturated with blood.

During the ordeal, Katlyn even had the presence of mind to call 911 from another room to avoid upsetting her mother by having her mom hear about the seriousness of her condition. While waiting for the ambulance to arrive, Katlyn even comforted her five-year-old brother.

But Katlyn's bravery was not over--even when her mother was treated and sent home. There was the matter of bringing justice to her mother's attacker. Katlyn testified at Hall's trial, and the vicious attacker was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to life in prison.

The WBALChannel.com (WBAL Baltimore's online news) reported that on May 2 the Baltimore County Bar Association, in a Law Day observance, recognized Katlyn's bravery with a first-of-its-kind citizen honor. As Kari Nelson told ABC News: "[I]t really, really makes me happy to see her sitting here and happy and proud of herself, because she did do a really, really good thing, and she should be proud of herself."