choking

Every parent fears the moment they discover their child is choking. I have experienced choking on a number of occasions with my kids and once I picked up a little girl whose head barely cleared a neighbour's buffet table I was standing at. She had picked up a melon ball and ate it. Her mother, standing at the other side of the table, looked at me in amazed wonder as I struck her little daughter's back. I had looked down at the girl, as I worked my way around the table and noticed the silent, panic stricken face, eyes wide open and the gaping mouth. As the mom came around the table she saw the partially chewed melon on the floor that had been freed with the back blows, and her daughter began to cry. I did not know the little girl or her mom.
Yesterday Will choked on his supper. It has happened before and usually I can get whatever he is choking on back up with one or two back blows. Yesterday I could not and I instructed Mitchell to call 911 while I continued trying. I can look back and see how I could somehow brush my own terror and panic aside and remain business-like and focused while this all took place. The bits of hamburger came out while Mitchell was on the phone. The dispatcher informed us that the ambulance would come anyway, so we stood at the front door listening to the siren get closer and closer and the whole time I thought about how those few minutes would seem like forever if that meat was still stuck. The ambulance crew was great, took Will's vitals and recommended we go to emerg to make sure nothing was aspirated. They presented Will with a teddy bear and a blown up latex glove. I drove Will to the emerg where the doctor found everything to sound good in his chest. I remarked to Mitchell what an excellent job he did on the phone when I got home.
After I settled all the kids in bed and I had the chance to sit quietly and realize how blessed we were, I cried.