FOR the first four years of his life, Axel Clark didn't speak.
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But, the 15-year-old realised how important words can be when he had to call 000 to save his fathers life on Saturday.
Axel, who has autism, performed CPR on his father for six minutes after finding him unconscious in his bedroom last Saturday.
"He was on the floor between his wheelchair and his bed," Axel said.
"The operators asked me what his breathing was like and I said it was shallow and short and they told me he wasn't getting enough oxygen."
Having never performed CPR before or completed any first aid training, Axel was thrown in the deep end.
"I started doing chest compressions," he said.
"I had to get walked through it over the phone but it was very scary.
"That situation is a fight or flight situation, if I was to sit there and freeze anything could happen so I just had to go and help anyway that I could."
Paramedics arrived and took Peter Clark to Bendigo Hospital where he was assessed and then discharged three days later.
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Mr Clark, who is a double amputee with type 2 diabetes, said he is still unsure what caused the episode but thinks it may have something to do with complications involving a kidney transplant eight years ago.
"All I remember is waking up in the respiratory unit in hospital," Mr Clark said.
Axel said he waited a nerve wracking four hours for the hospital to call after they'd admitted his father.
"It was such a relief to find out he was okay."
Both Axel and his brother have autism and attend Kalianna special school thanks to a Smith Family scholarship.
He said despite the judgement he sometimes gets, he's proud of himself and his school.
"The way people treat people with disabilities makes it hard," he said.
"People point at me, especially when I'm out and about in my uniform.
"I just brush it off and get on with it though."
While Peter Clark is still recovering from his episode, his pride for his sons has never wavered.
"I wouldn't be alive if it weren't for him, it's just so amazing, we're so proud of him."
Axel will begin his VCE subjects next year at Kalianna school, specialising in hospitality.
"I'd love to be a chef," he said, "just like my two older brothers."
"I make a pretty great carbonara."
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