I normally use my blog to talk about living my life gluten-free and helping my son navigate his life gluten-free. However, things do come up from time to time that I believe are important enough to get the word out about and they have nothing to do with eating or living gluten-free. This is one of those messages.
It is a shame that it takes a tragedy to make us think to ask these things…
The 7 y/o daughter of a friend of mine that lives in Texas collapsed at school this past week during lunch and later passed away. At this point, they believe she started choking and instead of asking immediately for help, went to the restroom. She came out in further distress, collapsed and a teacher took her to the nurse. The nurse, EMT’s and the ER personnel did everything they could but were not able to save her.
When Hannah came home from school yesterday, I asked her if she knew what to do if she started choking. She said no, and did not know the universal sign for choking. Needless to say, she does now. She now knows the worst thing that she could do would be to try and fix the problem herself and go to the bathroom or just tell a friend.
Which then leads me to the question of do all of the teachers and cafeteria workers that staff the lunchroom (at the minimum) know CPR and the Heimlich and what to do in the event a student starts to choke? I believe that they probably do, but I don’t know for sure and felt I should definitely ask.
Jensen’s Mom and I have known each other since we were pregnant and due the same month, her with Jensen and I with Hannah. Obviously, there is nothing that is going to bring Jensen back, but if what happened to her could possibly help to save others, then maybe something good can come from this tragedy. Are the children taught what they need to do in the event that they start to choke? If not, could 5 or 10 minutes be taken to show and tell them what to do?
Here is a link to the article:
http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/drc/localnews/stories/DRC_Girls_Death_folo_0331.201428d34.html
The universal sign for choking:
I sent the above letter to our school system’s superintendent, the building principal where Hannah attends school & her teacher.
Do your kids know the universal sign for choking?
