CPR stories from the media

I am receiving lots of good feedback from many people, Thank you!
Also from people who are arranging CPR class.
I had a CPR class arranged at my son's daycare.
Now, they are more parents and care givers that are educated and know what to do in case (god forbid) something will happen.

My story is not the only "good CPR" story.
I tried to collect stories from the media. I found a few and I will appreciate it you can add your own.

Thanks,
Ms. T

*A story from the American Heart Association website
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3012463


*A story from the Air Force Space Command website
http://www.afspc.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123022294

* The Decatur Daily website
http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/051128/save.shtml

* A story published on amNY 3/29/2006

Help me save young lives - Take CPR class

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.