Toddler, 3, Saves Great-Grandma After She Suffers Scary Fall, She ‘Calls Him Her Hero’ (Exclusive)

A 3-year-old toddler heroically saved his great-grandmother after she fell and needed help.

Bridger Peabody, 3, braved the dark after his great-grandmother Sharon Lewis fell outside her Strasburg, Colo., home in February, they told KUSA on Tuesday, March 11. 

On the night of the accident, Bridger stayed with his great-grandmother, whom he affectionately calls “GiGi.” He was with Lewis because his family was staying at the Children’s Hospital, where his older sister, Tenleigh, was being treated after hurting her finger in a shopping cart, his mother, Stephanie Peabody, exclusively tells PEOPLE.

As the two approached Lewis’ home, she fell and hit her head on the corner of a cement step.

“We went up to the backyard, dark backyard,” Lewis told KUSA. “Then we got up to the door where I was going to get the keys out. Well, I must have tripped over something just sticking up there.”

“She had her walker and then she fell,” Bridger said. “She bonked her head and it popped open.”

“We tried hollering for the neighbor because we saw her lights on,” Lewis said.

After five minutes, Bridger told Lewis that the neighbors couldn’t hear their calls, Stephanie tells PEOPLE.

Lewis explained to KUSA that she had to tell her great-grandson that she was okay despite the blood covering her head and soaking her clothes, but she would still need his help to get more assistance.

“I said, ‘You know what? You’re going to have to go out to the car and get my phone,'” Lewis said. “He said, ‘It’s too dark, GiGi.’ I said, ‘I know, but you’re going to have to be brave. Jesus will help you.’ ”

“I was scared outside in the really dark,” Bridger recalled for the news station.

In surveillance footage of the incident, Bridger is seen going to the driveway as Lewis says, “Open the door.” As he goes to Lewis’ car, he’s heard telling himself, “Don’t be afraid.” Once inside, he says, “Yay! I did it!” He then yells back at her when he retrieves the phone, “I got it, GiGi,” Lewis told KUSA.

Bridger returned the phone to Lewis so she could call other family members for further assistance. She told the outlet an ambulance took her to UCHealth Anschutz, where she was told she had a serious concussion and needed 22 staples in her head. Stephanie said the staples were removed and Lewis “is recovering great!”

Stephanie, who is Lewis’ granddaughter, was not aware of any of this until she was alerted of motion in her driveway, she tells PEOPLE. “When I opened my app, all I saw was ambulances in our driveway, so I called my mom in a panic,” she said.

“She told me everything was OK that Grandma fell and that Tim, our neighbor, had Bridger and Darcee, his wife, was with Grandma,” she said. “In that moment, I felt very overwhelmed and started crying.”

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“[His dad] Matt and I can’t be more proud of him and how brave he was in that moment because he is scared of the dark,” Stephanie tells PEOPLE. “GiGi calls him her hero. She doesn’t know what she would have done if he wasn’t there.”

“He’s just a blessing,” Lewis told KUSA. “I call him a hero. He goes, ‘No. I’m Bridger.’ He’s not quite sure what a hero is, I think, but he definitely is.”