Infant CPR and Heimlich

Everybody please learn infant CPR and Heimlich.  Long Story but please read.

I proved today it don’t matter how well your prepared and how careful you are with your babies things are going to happen beyond your control.  I am a part time Medic and a part time 911 Fire and EMS dispatcher.  My husband works part time for the Fire Department.  Every morning before I let my baby play (DD 8 Months) (I also have a 10 y/o DD and a 8 y/o DS) I make sure all small items are out of her reach and gone.  Well today I got to be on the other end of the phone and the other end of being a Medic.  My DD apparently found something I missed and put it in her mouth.  Before I could get to her (about 5 ft away) she started choking.  I immediately began infant choking procedures.  When the first attempt did not work I called 911 and an ambulance was dispatched.  The baby was breathing but not like she should and still choking on something.  Shaking hysterically I proceeded trying to revive her.  Stayed on the phone with Polly (dispatcher today) the whole time.  Fortunately by the time Greg and Eric (Paramedics) showed up whatever the item was dislodged and she swallowed it.  Only time with tell what it was.  She is fine now.  I never believed that it would happen to me.  I am extremely careful about what’s in the floor.  I feel sorry for my husband.  He was working at the Fire Station today and he was down stairs form the dispatch room when she paged it out.  Our town is so small that the Fire Department only has one paid person on staff a day and they do not go on Medical calls like in the bigger cities.  All he could do is sit there and listen to Polly talk to the Medics on the radio and to me.  I could only imagine what was going through his head when he heard the page for our address with the baby choking.  One thing about our town if you work on EMS or Fire everybody knows everybody and now Greg and Eric know what my pj’s look like.  At least I put shorts on with the top about an hour before this happened.

[AndiJ78]

I, too, went through something similar recently. Only what my son got ahold of didn't pass and was lodged in his esophagus (a penny actually) and it took sedation and a pedi-gi with a scope to get it out. I was a nurse and in the end it didn't matter. Sad thing is, I was almost blown off by the fill in pedi. I knew something was off, but was blown off. As luck would have it a completely unrelated test found it.

[kierstynsmommy]

ohhh, wow, how scary. I am hoping something like that never happens to me. I have taken a class though, so hopefully I wont panic and everything will be ok. I am glad all is well though!

[1nana]

Very well put. I think it should be mandatory for all parents to take and pass a CPR class.

[Tamara551]

It just goes to show you it doesn't matter how much you know or do and are careful things happen that are beyond our control.  That was the scariest feeling having to work on your own child.

[Nicole624]

Thank God shes ok!!

[AndiJ78]

It is very scary. The chain of events was wild. He was eating little bits of my sandwich the other night, appeared to choke, but remained consious and coughing. I attempted to get it out, thinking it was a bit of bread. It passed and the excitement settled. He nursed well and aside from some odd fussiness, seemed fine. Over the course of a day or two, I noticed when he cried it sounded weird. He was oxygenating well, fingers blanching, no discoloration around the mouth, no labored breathing, nursed like a champ. I simply could not get out of my mind something was wrong. I called my pedi, who was out for vacation and we scheduled with a different one. She listened to his heart and chest and noticed a very loud and undetected murmur. We went for the EKG and chest x-ray for his heart and low and behold...there was a perfectly round object in his chest!! After trying for more than an hour and half, the doc finally reached a pedi GI, who directed us to go down to Mary Bridge in Tacoma. We dropped our 5 and 3 year olds off at my BIL's and down we went.

Everyone was in awe, including me. Narry an indication anything was wrong, ate like a champ, active, normal baby.  I keep a clean house, the older boys keep all of their toys in their room and money the kids get goes right into the piggy bank or stays in their room. It is still a mystery how he got ahold of the penny. Here is his chest x-ray, scary stuff.

http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y136/AndiJ1978/?action=view&current=Clayton9Aug2007.jpg

The moral of my story is: ALWAYS trust your instinct. I knew something was wrong. Of course now we have an even bigger mountain to climb with his heart, but for now I am just happy this didn't turn out far worse.

[AndiJ78]

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y136/AndiJ1978/Clayton9Aug2007.jpg

I don't think the last link works.

[Tamara551]

Wow that is scary.  Have they told you anything out the heart problems yet.  My oldest DD has several holes in her heart. Had 2 small VSD and 3 small ASD.  the VSD closed on there own and the ASD are still there.  She is now 10 and is doing fine.  The holes are not big enough to need surgery but they are not small enough to ignore.  We have to go in every so often to have her checked.  She has 18q- and that is where the holes come from.  She also had to have her ears reconstructed and had club foot.  She was suppose to have a 95% chance of being metally retarded.  She did not get that but she is slow at learning.  Hope everything works out for you.  Keeps us updated.

[mum2beagain]

Andi, glad to hear they removed the penny, I hope the problems with CJ's heart are soon resolved, I'll be thinking of you. Jo.

[AndiJ78]

My oldest had a VSD that closed, but he is left with a murmur and starting to show signs of possibly having Wolff Parkinson's White, which my dh has. My second has this spot on his pulmonary artery that is unknown and has a murmur. And so I was not too surprised to hear CJ has something. Looks like ASD is what we are looking at. This all just happened on Thursday, so we should be hearing from the doc sometime this week and scheduling for the echo soon.

Damn the Jones's and their heart conditions! My side of the family is just full of drunks with high blood pressure. John's side is full or heart issues and cancer.