Would You Know What To Do?

A couple of years ago, my husband and I were faced with one of the scariest moments of our lives. We were faced with the fact that we may lose our child.  One day when my baby boy was about 1 and 1/2 to 2 years old, he was running around the house playing.  My husband was cooking dinner and I was doing the laundry.  Our little girl was playing on the floor.  My little boy was running into the laundry room as I was getting laundry out of the dryer.  I picked up the laundry basket and headed into the dining room where my little boy just ran.  I noticed my running toddler came to a complete stop.  I looked up and noticed, he wasn't breathing.  My thoughts came out of my mouth, "He's not breathing" as I started towards him.  My husband heard those words and looked at our boy and said, "I got him."  My 6' 8'' tall husband quickly made his way to our little boy.  He threw him over his arm so effortlessly as if he was a doll.  My boy was face down on my husband's arm with his head being held by my husband's hand.  With his other hand, my husband began to repeatedly hit my boy in the back in the middle of the shoulder blades with the palm of his hand.  He thought he heard our boy make a sound, so he turned him over only to see him turning blue and not breathing, but still conscious.  My husband went into panic mode at that moment even more so than he already was.  He realized our boy could lose consciousness at any moment.  He turned him back over on his arm and started hitting him harder and faster.  It seemed like eternity, but I know it wasn't that long before I heard the sound of a sucker hitting the floor and my son making a sound.  It was the best sound, the sound of my son breathing and crying.  I went up to my husband to grab our boy and my husband said, "no."  He then held our boy so tight and stood there and just held him a few minutes. My son was crying.  First of all, he just a few moments ago couldn't breathe. But also, his Pappa was just hitting him in the back so hard.  He thought his Pappa was hurting him, and he was, but he didn't realize his Pappa was helping him.

If you were faced with the same scenario with your child, would you know what to do?  We have been given precious gifts by God.  Their lives and well-being should be one of the most important things to us.  It is our duty as parents to know how to take care of our children to the best of our ability.  If your child started choking, would you know what to do? 

I was grateful that my husband and myself both were trained in CPR and first aid.  It was a requirement of our job to be certified in and take CPR classes every year.  I have met a mother faced with the horror of a child choking and didn't know what to do.  If you are a parent, please get the proper training to know how to handle these situations.  They do happen and at any moment, they can happen to you.  Not only should we know how to save our children in this situation, but we should also be aware of choke hazards and take the necessary steps to try to prevent something like this from happening.  But lets face it, they are toddlers/children.  Even if you are so careful, anything can happen in an instant.  Hopefully, our story will help others in realizing the importance of knowing what to do in a situation like this one.