A matter of life, or death...

[Christoph1945]

Superbly well done Danllan; both in saving your daughter from the Grim Reaper and in sharing your experience with us all. In sharing with us you have both woken us up to what may be just lurking around the corner for any of us and in the telling you will have broken the potential power of any post traumatic stress disorder.

G-d bless you man!

Chris

 

[Womblefarrier]

Sorry mod's for posting here, but it really should be as widely read as possible. To everyone else, please read...

Yesterday afternoon I left my children eating in the kitchen, Mrs Danllan was at work, I was only in the next room and had just started to clear up some of their 'destruction' when my oldest boy rushed in. He was rather excited, I couldn't make out what he was saying, so I told him to be quiet, think what he wanted to say, and then say it clearly.

He told me my little girl was choking... I ran in to the kitchen, and she was indeed choking. She was terrified, red in the face and clearly panicking. The others were frightened and crying too by then - all of them are primary age, her the youngest.

I've done enough First Aid to know the drills, even a paediatric resus' course years ago, so I checked in her mouth to see if the obstruction could be seen and maybe pulled out, it was out of sight. Next I tried striking her on the back, progressively harder strikes, checked the mouth again, nothing. I did this several times, quickly, all with no result.

I moved on to the Heimlich technique, only using one hand in a fist because of her being so small. Several goes, in turns with some more strikes on her back, no good. By now she had been a darker red and was starting to look blue - I told my oldest boy to call 999 for an ambulance.

I had to communicate with the call handler while carrying on, she had a medic on the way immediately; by now the blueness was clear and I decided that I wouldn't waste more time talking. I didn't know what was in her throat but I knew that if the Heimlich thrusts didn't work soon, I'd have to either try and force the object down past the tracheal branch - a bad choice in a small child - or cut her for a crico-thyroid tube insertion - something I've seen done but have never done myself, a truly horrible thought...

I gave her a couple more rotations of back-strikes and Heimlich thrusts, nothing. Her colour got worse. I decided I'd do two more rotations and then resort to cutting. I did the last two cycles, no luck. I gave one more Heimlich thrust, out of desperation, and it came out like a rocket! A slice of sausage over an inch wide and maybe a quarter as thick.

I tried to cancel the ambulance, but it came anyway because she is a child, and we had an evening trip to the paediatric A & E 'tent' at Glangwili in Carmarthen. She already had some bruising on her back and was complaining that her tummy hurt, but the consultant poked and looked and listened and declared all well and, for an irony, gave me a big pat on the back. Having, by then, returned to her normal way of being, my girl's greatest worry was when the red dots - blood vessels - showing around her eyes would go... relief all round.

I've had live bullets come at me, fallen badly while climbing, had wild and domestic animals try to kill me, but I have never, ever been so scared as I was at the realistic thought of my little girl dying... I found myself rather thoughtful last night. Serious lump-in-the-throat time...

Point is, if you haven't done a first aid course, could you save your little girl, boy, wife, husband or anyone else? Do one.

Bloody hell mate, just read this, full respect to you, makes me think I should do a course, being a father of 2 young boys, you just never know when you might need that sort of knowledge. Hope your little lass is ok now. I find it amazing how children are so resilient to so much.

 

[Pasty]

Well done brother. Scary stuff. I nearly choked to death as a child on a chewit but I think my Dad just beat the sh!t out of me until I coughed it up. I can remember the minute or so where you start to black out. These are life defining moments . Love my Dad .

 

[MickyMook]

Great job, well done. She’ll remember that with pride forever I imagine - more so when she’s old enough to realise just what it must have been like from your perspective.

 

[Vincenzosassone]

This terrible, but with an happy end, story shocked me. This make me understand how life can be short by an accident or something else, but many times we have the possibility to stop that. If I was in you, I wouldn't have known what I would have had to do, great!

 

[Fruitloop]

Terrifying. going to find a course, realised that other than walloping them on the back I wouldn't have a clue. made my hands tremble reading it. Thank goodness you knew how to deal with it. Well done.