Sunday, June 22, 2008

CPR???

We received a phone call last night from Jason(Elizabeth's husband and Ben's dad) around 9:15. I should have been alarmed just from the phone call since it was so late but I suppose I just wasn't thinking. Anyway, he was letting us know that Ben had experienced dry drowning after he was already in bed for the night. Elizabeth just happened to have the monitor sound on when she heard what sounded like Ben hiccuping(he is 21 months old). She wasn't sure, so she when in the room and he wasn't breathing!! Jason(who happens to be a doctor) picked him up and turned him upside down because he thought maybe there was some water in his lungs(they had been with us earlier that evening in the swimming pool). By that time Elizabeth said he was turning blue. At some point he did the Heimlich and then rescue breathing, which dislodged the hot dog and he started breathing. Thank God Jason was home(I believe he was supposed to be in surgery that night) and that the monitor was on...he had already been in bed for 45 minutes to an hour.

That really got Matt and I thinking about some things. I know the general idea of CPR, but haven't been certified in several years. In an emergency situation, I don't know that my mind would remember something I haven't practiced in years. And the other scary situation is that I do not have the sound on on my monitor....sometimes but not normally. Yes I have the screen on my video monitor and we have 2( 1 in the kitchen and 1 in the bedroom) that are not turned off until bedtime. I do go in their rooms before I go to bed, but again I don't leave the sound on while sleeping because their rooms are right next to ours and I can hear everything....but not them stop breathing.

Praise GOD that Elizabeth and Jason were paying attention to the monitor(she doesn't always have the sound on either!) and Ben was alright. The doctor said that water was coming back up his wind pipe and caused what he ate for dinner to become lodged and therefore cutting off his oxygen. There was a story on GMA about this dry drowning a couple of weeks ago and although it is very rare it can happen. So as I sit here typing I have my monitor turned up very loud and Jake has been very comical since we put him down. He howled for a bit like a puppy and then started saying bye bye. The last thing I heard him say was dooooog?(it is his accent) and I think he might be drifting off to sleep by now:). And I went to check on Landry since I can only watch one of them at a time, although I can switch channels on the monitor to see her...yet tonight I wanted to make sure she was OK so I physically went in there and she was. So I hope that this might get some of you thinking about what you would do if faced with a similar situation such as this.

1 comments:

Lora said...

We ALL need a CPR course every year. Young & Old-someone may need our assistance. I am so thankful the baby is alright & God had that Daddy at home for JUST THIS PURPOSE!