But Oien misdialed, and reached Aquarius Arnolds, a student at Indiana University Purdue University-Indianapolis, instead. "I didn't know who it is so I just decided to answer the phone and see. I couldn't understand anything the caller was saying," she said.
Arnolds said her first instinct was to hang up, but that something kept her on the line. "It seemed like he was in distress, so I just said, you know, do you need help, and he belted out 'Yes,' and that was the only thing I could understand," she said. With only the man's phone number to go off of, Arnolds called 911 and helped dispatchers get help to Oien.
"When the police got there, they had to kick down his door and they couldn't understand anything he was saying. He couldn't talk and he was in constant seizures" said Oien's girlfriend, Sherry Proctor. "I think that I would have come home and found him dead, or in worst shape than what he was."
She called Arnolds Oien's guardian angel, giving family members time to travel to Indiana to see him for what will likely be the last time. "His brothers came from Minnesota, Florida and Georgia, and I don't think they would have ever seen him alive again had it not been for her," Proctor said.
Oien is now in a nursing home, where Arnolds has visited him several times. "He was able to wave, blow a kiss to me and hold my hand," she said. Proctor said she's just thankful Oien found a caring person on the other end of his early-morning call for help. "He dialed one phone number and it just happened to be the right person," she said.
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