Hi,
My name is Ms. T, and I am a mother of two small children. I live in New York and I wish to share with you a story…
Two years ago I was at a friend’s house eating dinner.
Their (then) 1 year old son was sitting in his high chair enjoying his watermelon.
I will just say for the record that his mom made sure there were no seeds there, and that the watermelon was cut into small pieces.
Anyway, after a few minutes of dinner the child started coughing.
His parents started to pat his back. And he kept on coughing.
Try and imagine a few adults sitting at the table not doing anything and even worse panicking while this poor child is struggling for air.
I (apparently the only qualified person in the room) took the child out of his chair and performed the Heimlich maneuver.
The watermelon came out.
Or so we thought…
We went back to our dinner table but the child kept on crying. His mother, with her mother’s intuition, said that she thinks it’s not over - “something is wrong”.
She took him out of his chair and then the nightmare began.
I will spare you the details, but let’s just say that the child stopped breathing, lost consciousness, and turned blue while his parents panicked (“my baby is dying”).
SCARY!!!
What do you do in this situation?
How can you react to the phrase “my baby is dying”?
What do you do when it is not your own baby?
Yes, you call 911, but by the time someone gets there this poor baby could die!!!
Can you take a child from his parents and start doing something you are not sure will help?
I don’t know why, or where I found it in myself, but I told the father, whom at the time was holding the child, to put him on the ground and I started CPR (including mouth to mouth ‘forcing’ some air in).
By the time the police and the paramedics came, he was ‘back’.
I now know that I saved his life.
It turns out that the piece of watermelon was blocking his trachea, and there was no open airway.
By giving him CPR, I pushed the watermelon further down, which opened one side for the air to enter one of his lungs and he was able to breath on his own using this one lung.
The child is now fine, no permanent damage.
A few more minutes and this story would not have had a happy ending.
I don’t see myself as a hero, all I did was take a CPR class at my pediatrician’s office (not certified) and I kept my cool in the time of crisis.
All I ask of you, if you take care of children and\or you know of someone who does.
Please take a CPR class.
It only takes a couple of hours and it can save lives!
Please help me save lives.
Ms. T.
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11 comments:
Wow, thanks for the reminder that I really need to take CPR class!!
Glad you were able to do such a thing. Congrats...
Wow that is great news. Take a CPR class and make sure every caregiver for your children have taken a class as well.
Buy this DVD, and show it to everyone!http://cpresourcesllc.com/Home_Page.html
Thanks for the reminder Ms T.
I didnt think at all to learn CPR before this. Now I know that it is very important to take CPR class, or maybe buy a video about it.
Thanks again.
Wow, what an amazing story! Thank God you were there!
Congratulations for taking the CPR course and for having the presence of mind to remember and use the skills you learned. Your story illustrates the reason why CPR Teddy was developed (www.BabyAndChildCPR.com). So many times, when there is a breathing emergency, people forget what they learned in cpr class because they never have an opportunity to practice their skills. CPR Teddy encourages parents and child caregivers to practice so they can ACT in an emergency instead of panicing.
Please, Readers, don't postpone taking that CPR course. Mrs. T is the greatest example of why all parents should take the course - even before the baby is born.
What a movind story!
As a grandmother I often take care of the little ones, and I always worry that something may go wrong...
This definitely convinced me and my husband to take a CPR course soon.
Taking a CPR course is such a simple thing to do and relatively easy to put off but you underscored how important it is to do it now!
Thanks for visiting my site, Mrs. T and I will be sure to include some information on the importance of CPR.
Thank you for sharing your story. It is very important for EVERYONE to take a CPR class. If you are around children or not - you never know when you will be in a situation where someone needs help. You might be the only one who can provide it. It can happen to anyone anytime.
Not only is taking a CPR class and getting your certification in both adult and child CPR important, but also updating it each time before it expires.
You may not feel you are a hero, but you are as far as I'm concerned and I'm certain that the parents of that very lucky boy feel the same way.
Hi, Ms. T! I would love to help you promote your story. Would you please contact me at mwaugh@trainikins.com? We are always looking for stories of folks who were actually able to save kids with these skills.
Good for people to know.
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