HAMILTON — “Mom, help's coming,” 11-year-old Tyler Conrad said, reassuring his mother after she apparently was shocked by lightning that traveled through their home phone line as she spoke to a friend.

        “It threw me to the ground,” Shari Conrad, 34, said Tuesday,recounting last week's freakish incident. “Sparks came through the phone. It was like when you throw a bunch of firecrackers down.”

        Tyler is being hailed for keeping his cool and using a cellular phone to call 911 — while calming his brother, 5, and sister, 9.

        The Greater Hamilton Safety Council plans to present Tyler with an award May 21; city council also is considering an award for Tyler, police say.

        The St. Peter-in-Chains School sixth-grader called 911 just after 8 p.m. Wednesday and said, “My mom just got shocked by lightning. She said the phone like blew up in her hand. ... She is screaming and asking for help.”

        Nancy Smith, a city 911 supervisor who took Tyler's call, nominated the boy for recognition.

        “The little kid was pretty amazing,” Ms. Smith said. “He sounded in control, didn't he?”

        Ms. Conrad said her son is “a terrific kid” who has always been mature for his age: “I've always been proud of him. I'm a single parent, and he's always been my little rock.”

        Ms. Conrad doesn't remember much about the incident; she thinks she may have blacked out.

        “All I could do was scream,” she said.

        As his mother wails in the background of the 911 tape, Tyler tells the dispatcher: “She is hurt. She is hurt really bad. ... My mom said her arm is burning.”

        Ms. Conrad was examined at Fort Hamilton Hospital for chest pains and numbness, but was released. Pain in her right ear, which was next to the phone, lingered through Monday, she said.

        Merrill Barrick, Safety Council manager, said she couldn't cite statistics, but is aware lightning can cause shocks through phone lines.

        “I think most people think these are old wives' tales,” she said. “It doesn't happen very often, but it does happen.”

        Ms. Conrad says she's still incredulous.

        “It's something you'd never think would happen in a million years,” she said. “My grandmother, who's passed away now, would always tell us to get off the phone during a storm. She said we could get struck by lightning, and I'd laugh at her. Not anymore.”

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