It is no secret that David is an active boy...and with that comes bumps, bruises and even broken bones. But, last week we had an even bigger scare...choking. This is not the first time David has choked, we have previously made one trip to the ER when he shoved a handful of hot dogs into his mouth but that time wasn't that bad. Here is what happened this time...
We were all hanging out upstairs (Me, Seth, Kimmie, David, Kathy, Nathan & Christopher) and David was eating almonds, which he has had a billion times before, but this time he was walking around while eating them. He tried to step down off something and fell. When he fell he scraped his back and started to cry. Seth walked over and picked him up, as he was carrying him David we noticed he still had not let out a second cry. He inhaled to cry, but we kept waiting for the wail that usually follows...but there was nothing, he was just holding his head back trying to catch his breath. At first I thought he must have knocked the wind out of himself when he fell. Seth turned him around to see what was going on and in that moment David quickly lost consciousness and went completely limp. His eyes closed, arms fell to his side and was not breathing. Then I suddenly thought maybe he hit his head when he fell and I didn't' see it, but then Seth flipped him down and starting doing back blows on him and it hit me, our little boy was choking. Initially nothing came out, so Seth moved to the chair to sit down to help angle David better. I grabbed David's hands and held them and prayed while Seth continued to hit his back. In what seemed like forever, but was really only like 30 seconds, little chunks of almond began to come out of his mouth and he started crying/breathing again. When Seth turned him back up his lips were blue, but he was breathing and coherent. We asked if he was ok and he kept responding yes. We sat and held him for a while and soon enough he was running around playing with Kimmie like nothing happened. That is when I went downstairs and cried like a baby! We were all so calm during it, but after the adrenaline wore off it really hit me how close we came to losing our precious boy.
I am sharing this as a record, like a journal entry, but also because I want all the parents out there to make sure they know what to do in emergency situations. Seth is a Boy Scout leader and frequently teaches first aid as a part of scouts, so he knew exactly what to do and responded so quickly. I took a class when Kimmie was first born, and because of the previous hot dog incident I know what to do in situations like this. But it got me thinking, do the people we leave our kids with know what to do? It is so important that everyone, especially those who care for children, know what to do in emergency situations. The whole thing, start to finish, did not last for more than 60 seconds, but it only takes less than a second for things to go from very good to very bad. I do not mean to scare anyone, but I think we should all be prepared. I am not going to become one of those overprotective, safety obsessed parents, but I do want to be able to do all that I can to protect my children. I can do that by keeping up with the current ways to do CPR and handle choking and also by praying every day that Heavenly Father will watch over and protect the ones I love. I know I cannot keep them completely safe, but it brings me so much comfort to know that Heavenly Father takes care of us and that no matter what, we are an eternal family, nothing will ever separate us.
Let's just hope David has more lives than a cat, because I am pretty sure he has already used up his 9 lives and he is not even two yet!
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