"Will I ever use this? I mean, I'd rather be reading a magazine in the sun, I hope this gets out soon."
It's amazing I've been an RN for 5 years now, and every couple of years I have to renew my CPR certification. This includes the Heimlich maneuver, which I think I've been taught ever since Health class in high school. Who would have thought that my very first serious time of using it would be on my 2 1/2yr old son at dinner time.
Tonight we're eating dinner in the living room watching a movie and eating dinner. Maysen was sitting in front of Nate and sort of kitty-corner from me. All of a sudden he got very still. I look over and he's sitting there with a glazed-over look with his mouth open. I had given him a quarter of a peanut butter sandwich, which he never has a problem with. Well, he must have crammed the whole thing in his mouth (which he's never done) without me noticing. Anyway ... he's sitting there so I jump up (Nate had no idea anything was wrong because he couldn't see him) and I whacked him a good few times on the back. You know how your adrenaline is raging so I knew they were pretty hard ones. If he was ok, he would have started crying, but *nothing* which was just plain eerie. So I looked in his mouth and his eyes were just panicked. I whacked him again hard about 3 times and then I looked back at his face and I felt like a deaf person because his face was red, tears streaming, eyes in cry-mode, face in cry-mode but he was *silent*. I knew then that his airway was blocked as he was turning colors. So I threw his tray off him, pulled him onto the ground and did the Heimlich. On the third thrust I was able to get it up and he started crying. I'm not sure who was more scared. Me or Maysen? Within 10min he was OK, asking for cereal and I was still shaking.
But ... he's OK. Thank goodness. I was thinking the whole time to myself "oh my God, what if I can't get this out?" It's amazing how "autopilot" you go into .. as I don't remember much about it, I just sorta went out of body and did what I had to do. Nathan said "I'm so glad you were here because I wouldn't have known what to do."
Phew .. I'm going to bed now....
5 comments:
My poor Bean. I'm glad he's okay. Give him keeses from his auntie!
oh my WORD that's scary! Thank goodness you knew what you were doing. glad he's ok!
Hey Leslie,
Glad maysen enjoyed the video :)
We have a Sony DSC-H1 digital camera. and i LOVE it.
Scary - we've had a few close calls - but luckily it has always come unstuck when i grabbed him from the high chair and leaned him forward.. They have an amazing ability to shove lots of food in their mouths. Still scares the daylights out of you though. Glad he was okay - glad you were okay ;-)
Oh wow. I totally know the feeling of how scary that can be. It's those moments when we look back and are so grateful for the training we've had over the years.
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