A young life saved

October 7, 2011
by Harry Labana

Last Thursday, my wife, Alicia, and I were both home from work and in the kitchen cooking dinner around 5:30, because the kids usually eat around 6:30.  My six-year-old daughter, Jaiya, and three-year-old son, Kethan, were at the dining room table right outside the kitchen doorway.  We were prepping for dinner, but my son usually can’t wait for dinner and wants a snack beforehand.

We used to give him orange segments with the rind on, but he’d suck all the juice out and discard them.  To get him to eat the pulp as well, we’d begun instead to take the skin off and cut the orange into segments. We’d put some of these in front of him on the table, where he likes to stand on a dining room chair to eat.

My wife was on the phone with Verizon about her phone service.  She tapped me on the shoulder and said “I think he’s choking.”  And there he was, standing on his chair, staring at us and banging with his feet on the seat of the chair to get our attention.

We went over quickly and tapped his back, but nothing happened.  My wife said to the Verizon person “Listen, my son’s choking,” and she ran right away to call 9-1-1, which we’ve always known to do. 

I put him face down on my lap and tapped on his back.  I wondered whether to use the Heimlich maneuver, but because he’s three I wasn’t sure.  I continued patting on his back for what seemed like maybe 30 or 40 seconds and it wasn’t working. He was gagging, but making no voice sounds.

Then my wife has a few goes at it.  Nothing.  To the 9-1-1 police officer on the line my wife says, “My son’s choking – I think he’s going to die!”  Hearing that, my six-year-old was completely hysterical and then we had to get her to calm down, all the while continuing to tap on our son’s back.  I heard my wife say into the phone “Please hurry up, I’m begging you.”

Kethan began to change color and grow limp.  “What do we do?” we asked each other. My wife picked him up and started the Heimlich, from behind him.  I tapped him on the back again and thought I heard him take one breath, but still he wasn’t breathing.  I stopped tapping, thinking the crisis was over.  Then, “Ohmygod,” I said, “It’s come back!” He was getting purplish. His eyes were rolling up and he was banging on the table for breath.

He was sitting with my wife on the floor now, and she again gave him the Heimlich, from behind.  One piece of orange popped out.  I said into the phone to 9-1-1 “Hey I think we got it!”  But he still couldn’t breathe.  It was three minutes into it, and we were losing hope now.  Where’s the ambulance, I wondered.  I had this terrible feeling of hopelessness.  We were still asking each other “How do we do the Heimlich properly?”  We were afraid we were pushing in, I think, instead of upwards.

I went to the front door, just to open it, and this car screamed into our driveway and a guy in a big orange coat got out and ran in asking “How old?”  “Three!” we shouted.  He saw exactly what was going on. He sat on the floor and grabbed Kethan and started performing the Heimlich.  It took him a minute still and then all of a sudden the two or three pieces just coughed up.  The cop had a bag of oxygen with him and gave it to Kethan though a mask. 

The cop’s legs were shaking and so were ours. We were all in-the-moment of “Ohmygod, what almost just happened!  Ohmygod, we made it!”  A few minutes later the ambulance arrived.  A paramedic did all the checks on my son, and he was all right but still they wanted him to be seen at the hospital.

Afterwards, at the hospital in Mt. Kisco, they wanted to make sure all that thumping on his back hadn’t caused any internal injuries. But everything was fine.  We probably got out of there two or three hours later, around nine o’clock. 

You hear about these things, but being in this situation you’re really out of control, just reacting. It was horrible.  We stayed in with the kids that weekend. I think my wife cried all weekend.  It put everything in perspective.  The police often have to do boring or dangerous things.  This is an example of why they’re so important.

The officer was a dad too.  He has kids.  He gave me a little salute when he left the driveway.  He could feel how I felt and I could feel how he felt.  We’re both big guys. He’s a big guy and I’m a big guy and here we were about to cry.  He’s our hero.

Home from the hospital that night I had a big glass of scotch.  Next morning, I heard Kethan re-enacting the scene for my wife, complete with coughing. 

“Daddy hit me!” he complained to her.

That was Kethan’s takeaway.  Mine is that it’s really important to take proper refreshers in CPR.  We give it in our schools, our nannies have it, and parents have probably taken it at some time, but don’t necessarily keep it up.
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The 9-1-1 call for help

Bourbeau at police headquarters this week

Editor’s Note: Officer Ray Bourbeau’s account follows. Just before 5:30 on Thursday, September 30, Bourbeau had been dispatched to a deer-and-car accident on North State Road that turned out to be outside of New Castle’s territory when he got the call to report to the Labanas’ address, near where Routes 100 and 120 meet.

“I turned around,” Bourbeau explained, “and started back toward 120. The road is four lanes there, with four lights between me and them.  You have to focus 100% on your driving and also be going over in your mind ‘Now what do I do when I get there?’  I was there in about a minute, I grabbed the oxygen and First-Aid kit and went in.

“The parents were frantic, their daughter was in the living room, in the fetal position, hoping something would go right.  They handed me their three-year-old child.  My adrenaline was up. I did what any one of us would have done, given our training.  Sgt. Edelson was calming the parents down on the phone, which is just as difficult to do. 

“The child was lifeless, with purplish lips, not breathing. As soon as I’d entered, I’d put down my bags and just stayed down on the floor with the mother and child. I put him on here my right arm and with my other hand him gave a series of back-blows, then right away pulled him to my chest, my arms around him with his back against my chest, and gave one quick thrust. I heard him gasp, then cry. His eyes were coming back and he was breathing. 

“I put the oxygen mask on him and noticed a mass of orange pulp near my left foot about the diameter of a quarter. 

“He got his color back.  My biggest concern going in was that I didn’t have much time to hear from the parents what had taken place before I had to act, but I did what our training teaches us.

“He was breathing and asking for mom. I felt him to see if anything was broken and then Officer Mendosa came in with CVAC. I explained to CVAC what I’d done and they checked him out further.”
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Editor’s Note: The Chappaqua Volunteer Ambulance Corps (“CVAC”) has an American Heart Association “Family & Friends” CPR course coming up on Sunday, October 30, at 4:00 p.m. at CVAC Headquarters, 233 North Greeley Avenue.

“Family & Friends CPR” teaches lay rescuers skills in CPR, including use of an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) and how to relieve choking in infants, children and adults. The class takes about 90 minutes. To reserve a place in the class, email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).  CVAC likes to keep the classes small and hands-on, so depending on the response, they may form a class for another time. The fee for the course is $5. CVAC Headquarters is at 233 North Greeley Avenue.