Scary Day

[Abbeys_Mom]

We were in the bank setting up an RESP for our Daughter and the woman behind the desk offered her a candy. Before we knew it she was choking. It was the scariest thing ever! My Husband passed her to me and I couldn't see the candy in her mouth, so I passed her back. My Husband gave her the Heimlich maneuver and the candy popped out. My Daughter is only 2 1/2 (as of today) and it was scary to think she could have died. We didn't think anything of giving her the candy, since she had always been ok in the past. So I have a warning to all the parents out there to avoid round candies. This one was a Campino Orange Cream candy. There are also peppermint candies that are the same shape and size. The other scary thing was that the woman that worked at the back ran out of the room calling for anyone that new CPR or the Heimlich and there was only one woman who said she new CPR! Please, for the safety of your children, learn basic life saving techniques.

[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

My Husband tells it better.

I packed up the wife and kid today and headed down to the bank for an appointment with an RESP consultant. While we were going through the motions of signing things, reading things and discussing things, Abbey was getting more and more bored and becoming more and more noisy.

Noticing a bowl of Werther's candies on the woman's desk, I asked if I could have one to give to Abbey to help keep her quite.

Now, she is two and a half years old today. The guy at the local pet store gives her a hard candy every time we are in. She has never had any troubles with hard candies before. I assumed it would be ok.

A few minutes into things, Abbeys started making a choking sound. She was still getting some air through so my wife tried to get the candy out with her finger. Turns out it was too far in. She handed Abbey to me, but before I could do anything, Abbey panicked and took in a big breath to start crying. Of course, when she did, the candy became fully lodged and she stopped getting air.

My mind starting quickly going over the Heimlich maneuver for babies, but as I laid her across my knee, it was quickly evident that she was too big for this to work.

By this point, the woman we were talking to had run out of the office and was screaming for someone who knew CPR. Abbey was starting to look a little gray.

I quickly pulled Abbey around and started to preform the heimlich maneuver, as I remembered it from the First Aid classes I had taken as a kid.

Starting off with a fairly light pull and then getting stronger with each successive one, I continued. After the first three, I thought it wasn't going to come out, but then on the fourth attempt, it popped right out.

Everyone in the branch was elated ( by this point we had a small crowd).

Abbey is doing fine now, no bruising to her ribs (good to know because with all the adrenalin pumping through me, I was afraid I may have been pulling too hard) and the only problem she seems to have now, is a really sore throat.

I'm still shaky from all of this, but happy to still have Abbey here.

We bought her a small cake yesterday to celebrate her "Half Birthday". After this morning, it seems a little more important.
_________________________
[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]
[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]
[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

[Drumachine09]

Im happy that she is ok.

That just proves the point that EVERYONE no exceptions, should know the basic lifesaving tecniques.

[Incredulous_Ed]

I'm glad she's ok. I agree with drumachine on the lifesaving techniques

[cocoa_pleco]

my scary day was bad too.

First, in my house, me and my parents hear the tap run at night, and a cup move around- and noone else is there. I got ticked and went to see the tap running, and water allover on lots of occasions

Then, today, when I brought the new gravel for my new tank into the basement, all of my darts in my dartboard that were already lodged in the board all fell onto the floor right when I came in.

Then, when I was at the basement sink, a glass just randomly flew 6 feet away and smashed into the wall- I was the only one there.

I cant figure this out.
Some of my relatives think its either my aunt who passed away in '95 or grandfather that passed in '83

[cocoa_pleco]

great, and now im home alone.

Maybe my auratus can kill spirits?

[Lauren B.]

I'm glad to hear that your daughter is okay, thanks to the quick thinking of your husband.

I'm sorry to hear that there was no one in the bank, or at least no one willing, to help with CRP or the Heimlich. I do agree that it is important to know basic lifesaving techniques. Folks out there who are parents should be knowledgeable, because if anything else, they should have the motivation to help save their own child's life, god forbid an incident like yours happens to someone else.

On the flip side of the coin though, here's a story showing another view of why someone might be reluctant to step in and help....

My ex-boyfriend was a former lifeguard. Not only was he just a lifeguard, he was a lifeguard at a mental health facility (why there was a pool at a mental hospital is beyond me....I don't think the pool's open anymore). So not only do you have people there that need rescuing on a daily basis (and I do mean multiple rescuings on a daily basis), many were schizophrenic, suicidal, afraid of being touched, etc. Most were so out of their mind that they would fight tooth and nail AGAINST being rescued. Anywho, one time my ex rescued a particular patient, administered CPR and all was fine until later on. The patient's family came back and filed a law suit against my ex and the hospital claiming that my ex had fractured the patient's ribs, administered CPR improperly, causing internal injuries, etc. The family eventually dropped the suit because there was no evidence to their claim, but regardless, my ex had to be dragged through the ringer trying to prove his innocence and competence.

Fast forward two years. My ex is in a restaurant when a man starts choking. This was decades ago, back when there weren't CPR and heimlich instructions plastered all over restaurant kitchens. The man was in obvious distress, so my ex came forward to admister the heimlich. If anyone has actually seen the heimlich being perfomed, you know that it's not a gentle maneuver, especially when you're doing it on a choking grown man. So one big heave-ho, and the chicken bone or whatever comes flying across the man's table. My ex did not stick around to receive accolades and appreciation. He was afraid that another person would take advantage of his willingness to save a life, and as far fetched as it may seem to you and I, hit him with another law suit or some other type of indignity. As soon as the man started breathing and coughing, my ex grabbed his coat and ran from the restaurant. He never returned and he never wanted to know the outcome, and he never wanted anyone to find out his identity. After the first law suit at the mental hospital, he was reluctant to help the choking man, but he just couldn't turn his back on humanitarianism.

It's sad to say that in this day and age full of leeches, advantage-takers, and dishonest people looking to make a buck any way they can, we cannot even help our fellow human being. I've never taken an official CPR class, but I've seen enough pamphlets, seen enough ads in magazines, and we all see CPR performed and explained on tv more than we can count, and I believe I could give it a decent try if need be. However, I would be very reluctant to do it on a stranger, and even more so on a stranger's child. I would not be willing to submit myself to the accusations and scrutiny if I wasn't 100% successful, which there is never a guarantee of. It's sad that the mentality is: if you don't try, you won't get blamed for failure, but if you do try and fail, the world (and the stranger/stranger's child) will be pointing the finger of blame at you.

There's my two cents. Remember the caveat for this forum section: not everyone will agree with you, so if I get a tyrade of hate-posts, so be it.

[Abbeys_Mom]

I entirely agree with you. I figured that is why no one stepped forward. That is why as a parent I know that I need to take the steps to protect my Daughter. I could not imagine having to do the Heimlich on someone else's child. My Husband had do modify it a bit because she was too old for the infant kind, but not big enough for the adult kind. To make things worse, we we're all wearing our winter coats, Abbey had snow pants on too. My Husband was very concerned about the possibility of breaking one of her ribs. I know that if the situation were different and a stranger saved my Daughter, but broke one of her ribs, I would still be grateful to them and suing them would be the last thing on my mind.

[cocoa_pleco]

I dont know why some people sue over little things like that.
They just make a huge deal out of everything

[Lauren B.]

my scary day was bad too.

That is so freaking creepy!!!!!

I used to have odd experiences when I was a child, but not anymore thank god. However, there is one thing that happened last year that freaked me out. I know it was just coincidence, but it was weird.

Warning: if you are squeamish, do not read the following story.

When I worked at the animal shelter, our dogs and kennels were located downstairs, and our cattery upstairs. In shelter and in every animal hospital, when an animal dies or gets euthanized it is put into a plastic bag, sealed, and placed into cold storage (large meat freezer) where it is picked up/emptied once a week by the city.

One day my asst. manager was having a particularly busy and harried day. After euthanizing a cat, she bagged it but didn't have time to run downstairs to put it in cold storage (we also take into consideration if there are a lot of people around...we don't want to distress them by carrying bags of dead animals around in front of them). Instead, she placed in inside the freezer of a refrigerator we keep in the cattery for medications and vaccines. Apparently she forgot about the dead cat and it was in the cattery's fridge-freezer all afternoon. At closing, I came upstairs to turn off the lights and close up. As I reached the top of the stairs and opened the cattery door, I took one step in and looked up just in time to see the freezer door slowly open...and the body of the dead cat fall out onto the floor! I stood there paralyzed and looking from side to side...I thought I was on hidden camera and this was a prank! I mean, for me to walk upstairs and just as I'm looking up at the fridge that incident had to happen?? Talk about freaky!! I told everyone about it and no one believed it!

And a sidenote as well...just so no one thinks the animal was still alive and it jumped out...we are properly trained and certified to euthanize. We use proper euthanizing solutions and methods, and there's a checklist that we have to perform to make sure the animal has expired. We are out to help domestic animal species, not to torture them.

[Nautilus29]

So scary to here about your daughter. Im glad to here everything went ok.

Once I choked on pop. ya i know it sounds weird but I did. I was a a friends house and right as I went to take a big gulp they made me laugh. well somehow that sucked it somewhere it shouldnt have been becuase I couldnt breathe. everytime I went to take a breath of air all that came out was a weird noise. Luckily it was a liquid becuase it drained down but It scared the crap out of me.

And my friends didnt know what was going on and all were laughing becuase I was making a weird noise.

[Drumachine09]

great, and now im home alone.

Maybe my auratus can kill spirits?

Two word for ya... Ghost Busters!

[Lauren B.]

I entirely agree with you. I figured that is why no one stepped forward. That is why as a parent I know that I need to take the steps to protect my Daughter. I could not imagine having to do the Heimlich on someone else's child.

Again, I'm so glad the outcome is as it is. Maybe parents on this forum, or friends that you tell this story to, will be motivated to take a class. I just hate that it might take a frightening incident with your daughter to jar parents awake. Bravo to your husband, and have your daughter eat....I dunno?...Pixie Sticks instead. :1luvu:

[Drumachine09]

Again, I'm so glad the outcome is as it is. Maybe parents on this forum, or friends that you tell this story to, will be motivated to take a class. I just hate that it might take a frightening incident with your daughter to jar parents awake. Bravo to your husband, and have your daughter eat....I dunno?...Pixie Sticks instead. :1luvu:


Pixie sticks a.k.a kiddie cocaine. My neighbors little brother got a box of the huge ones for his birthday, and was bouncing off the walls on a sugar buzz. It was kinda funny actually!

[Abbeys_Mom]

And a sidenote as well...just so no one thinks the animal was still alive and it jumped out...we are properly trained and certified to euthanize. We use proper euthanizing solutions and methods, and there's a checklist that we have to perform to make sure the animal has expired. We are out to help domestic animal species, not to torture them.

Your lucky, the place I worked at had poorly trained staff. One vet put a budgie to sleep and when I picked up the box an hour later the damn thing peeped at me. I nearly had a heart attack. I also had to sleep in the basement of the Animal Hospital, because I was the 24 emergency phone operator (Whole other story). There would be weird things happening all the time. I work up one morning and the stickers were missing off half of the file in reception. Turned out that a dog got out (out of it's kennel and then out 2 doors to the hall) and had run back and forth. She was covered in red tabs and yellow date stickers (really hilarious).

[Lauren B.]

Once I choked on pop. ya i know it sounds weird but I did. I was a a friends house and right as I went to take a big gulp they made me laugh. well somehow that sucked it somewhere it shouldnt have been becuase I couldnt breathe.

I have done this more than I'd like to admit! I can't tell you how many times I've breathed improperly and aspirated my drink....or even my own saliva! And it's horrible!...you start gasping and wheezing, then coughing, and in an effort for your body to rid the foreign object from your windpipe, your stomach heaves and you make this horribly embarrassing choking/vomiting sound! It's then followed by a bunch of liquid being regurgitated back into your mouth, and by that time you're beet red and your eyes are non-stop watering (not to mention the massive blood pressure headache I get afterward from all the wretching). This has happened to me so often (like at least once or twice a year) that I get anxious about it happening in public. <--Ha! That's funny...I'm so used to it that I'm more afraid of embarassing myself in front of people than actually choking and dying! :thumb:

[Lauren B.]

Pixie sticks a.k.a kiddie cocaine. My neighbors little brother got a box of the huge ones for his birthday, and was bouncing off the walls on a sugar buzz. It was kinda funny actually!

I used to love Lick'm Aid. I don't know why, but I used to eat the crunchy hard white dipping stick instead of the powder.

[cocoa_pleco]

k, i went to 7-11 a while ago, and some kid in grade 10 actually took one of my pixie sticks and snifffed the whole thing. He had major sinus pain and watery eyes after that.

But yeah, skittles and kiddie cocaine are like 99.9999999999% sugar.

I need those ghostbusters soon!

[Lauren B.]

Your lucky, the place I worked at had poorly trained staff. One vet put a budgie to sleep and when I picked up the box an hour later the damn thing peeped at me. I nearly had a heart attack. I also had to sleep in the basement of the Animal Hospital, because I was the 24 emergency phone operator (Whole other story). There would be weird things happening all the time. I work up one morning and the stickers were missing off half of the file in reception. Turned out that a dog got out (out of it's kennel and then out 2 doors to the hall) and had run back and forth. She was covered in red tabs and yellow date stickers (really hilarious).

That is funny....the dog covered in stickers! Every shelter does the best they can, with the resources they have. Not all shelters are perfect, and there's always a need for more money and more funds (and less intakes). There was a huge story a while back about a shelter that euthanized a large dog and it woke up in the freezer. An investigation showed that the shelter was diluting the Euthasol and only the sedative effects took, but not the cardiovascular inhibitation. It was such a terrible story...lucky it was the only one like that I've heard.

My asst. manager, who is a veterinary technician, used to works in all aspects of animal medical, but she would tell stories about one particular vet she hated in the surgical suite. The vet's friend had left his cat for surgery, and the cat expired during surgery. Apparently the vet was too busy to call the friend with the bad news immediately, and when he finally got around to it, the cat was in rigor. The vet then asked my asst. manager to quickly blow dry the cat with a hair dryer (yes, BLOW DRY!) so that the friend might not know its low body temperature and think it just recently expired! How awful!

To end this on a funny story, we would often have a friendly dog stay in our front office as a means to either keep him from bordatella exposure (if he was being transferred out soon), or to have him socialize and keep him friendly. One time my manager opened the bottom drawer to a file cabinet, then turn around to answer the phone. The dog took that very opportunity to sniff the open drawer....then lift his leg and urinate right in it! The files and papers inside were ruined, but we had to keep them since they were original documents, and they were forever urine-scented and tinted!

[*Sarah*]

Wow, that's so scary! I'm so glad your daughter is ok. I have a 2 1/2 yr old son and a 4 yr old daughter, and I would be so petrified if something like that happened.

[kimmers318]

That brought tears to my eyes AbbeysMom.....I couldn't imagine the fear during those moments. I know one time at the IX center I lost my 2 yr old niece. My 2 yr old fell coming down a slide and just as I bent to soothe her my niece chose that moment to climb back off the steps she had just been heading up and managed to get out of my sight. I swear it was only like 5-6 seconds, just long enough to pick my daughter up, I had looked at my niece going up the steps to the slide as I bent down, when I stood back up I expected to see her coming down the slide....instead she had disappeared. She was found, thankfully, but within about 30 seconds I had the security on alert and was running for the exits to make sure noone was trying to leave with her....I left my stuff, including my purse at the playyard. It was a long scary time frame, I don't even know how much time elapsed, but I understand the fear that something bad is happening. Kudos to your hubby for acting as fast as he did, even if he felt he was chancing breaking a rib, broken ribs heal, death doesn't.
I do believe there are now good samaritan laws in place to stop people from suing someone who administers life saving techniques even if something goes wrong. Now, they have to prove the person acted with malicious intent or something......making a mistake while trying to save someones life isn't a good enough reason to sue. I had brought that up because when I was driving school bus we were required to take basic first aide and it was mentioned that we didn't want to be held liable if we tried to save a child.
Give Abbey a big hug and kiss for me

[Lauren B.]

I do believe there are now good samaritan laws in place to stop people from suing someone who administers life saving techniques even if something goes wrong. Now, they have to prove the person acted with malicious intent or something......making a mistake while trying to save someones life isn't a good enough reason to sue. I had brought that up because when I was driving school bus we were required to take basic first aide and it was mentioned that we didn't want to be held liable if we tried to save a child.

That's really good to know because honestly, I've been thinking about this subject for a while now, since I read Abbey's original post. I felt crappy that the only person I would dare to help in that kind of situation would be my own boyfriend or one of my friends, knowing they were the only people that wouldn't blame me for something going wrong. I'm glad you posted that kimmers, and it does make me feel a little better.

[cocoa_pleco]

It fricks me off when people dont help other people.
This is REALLY sad, but in 2000 a old lady here died from the cold at a bustop, and was half buried in the snow, and for 6 hours NOONE came to help or anything and its a really busy bustop

[Lauren B.]

I grew up in Chicago and lived just outside of Manhattan. In inner-cities, you don't even dare look at a person much less try to assist them in any way because people are so hostile. Strangers there are like aggressive dogs...you don't know their past history, you don't know their degree of mental health, and you never know what will trigger an attack. The best and safest you can do for some people is to alert a nearby policeman, if the situation looks that serious.