Firefighters help save choking infant

Frantic parents arrived at a Spokane Valley fire station with a 10-month-old infant struggling for breath.

The infant had a piece of a Christmas tree ornament stuck in his throat, firefighters said.

Spokane Valley firefighters, Jeff Miner, Rhys Evans and Capt. Ken Capaul, who were returning from another call, met the parents in the parking lot.

Usually with infants, anyone but mom touching them, really agitates them, said Capaul. “The baby was screaming, and he was working real hard to breathe,” Capaul said. “So our first goal was to calm the baby down. I cuddled him real close and real tight, and calmed him down.”

The baby became upset when the firefighters tried to remove the ornament, so the officials decided to rush him to the hospital.

The paramedics in the ambulance were preparing for the worst just in case the boy’s breathing ability worsened, which the first responders were worried about.

Capaul decided it was best if he rode in the ambulance with the infant.

“I held him all the way to the hospital, and the baby actually fell asleep,” Capaul said. “I have two older sons, and it has been awhile since I’ve had a baby in my arms, so it was nice.”

Firefighters took the baby to a hospital where an emergency procedure was done to remove the piece of glass ornament.

“Many times we don’t get much feedback from the hospital, but since mom was OK with it, we learned the boy was OK,” Capaul said, adding that it was nice to know the final outcome.

“It’s relieving that things didn’t get worse,” Capaul said. “We made a difference in a little guy’s life.”

For first responders, emergencies involving children are often tougher.

“The biggest thing with kids is almost everyone has one,” Capaul said. “The other thing is we don’t see them as patients very often, so we aren’t as prepared.

“When a little person is hurt, big people are hurt, too,” the fire captain said. “We have to keep that emotion in check and make sure we focus on the medical emergency in hand and not the age of the patient.”

The mother, Dawn Yardley, followed up with the firefighters by thanking them in person the next time they were on shift.

But first, she called Spokane Valley Fire Chief Mike Thompson to express how grateful she was for the firefighters’ work.

“I received a telephone call today from Mrs. Dawn Yardley saying how appreciative she was of everyone’s efforts … for saving the life of her 10-month-old son,” Thompson wrote in an e-mail. “She was told by the emergency department that if she would have tried driving her child to the hospital he would not have survived.”