Last night while I was putting the boys to bed, Sarah managed to get a piece of tape off of some furniture in Jamiee’s room and quickly put it in her mouth. Jamiee called me when Sarah started gagging and throwing up. I ran in and she seemed fine, but then she threw up again. When I looked in her mouth, I could see the tape lodged in the back of her throat. Knowing that I should not try to pull it out since I could push it farther back, I grabbed the phone and dialed 911.
The operators were great and when the second one came on the phone to tell me what to do, Sarah managed to cough it out. I told this to the operator, but he said that they were still going to send someone out to make sure that all of it came out. I was expecting one ambulance, but no, they sent the whole emergency entourage… Three vehicles with flashing lights all outside our house.
When they pulled up, Jamiee was outside on her way back from the garage. The captain asked where the child was and Jamiee pointed to our door. Jamiee said that outside they were pulling the stretcher out of the ambulance and gathering supplies. The captain came up with three or four other men to check on Sarah. After a quick look, he waved off one of the vehicles. While the paramedic checked Sarah’s vitals and declared her just fine, another man asked to see the tape and vomit (to check for blood I suppose.) The boys were fixed at the window watching all of the activity outside. Toward the end of their visit, the captain sat down and talked to them about all the vehicles and what they were doing. Throughout their time here, I was desperately trying to suppress the nervous laughter that I wished I didn’t have. They asked me several times if I was okay. I told them that I was a little embarrassed that they had to bring everyone out, but they assured me that this was their job and that I did the right thing by calling in this situation. The whole thing lasted about 10 minutes.
After they left, I was thinking about the response time. It took them about five minutes to get here. Knowing that Sarah was okay, I used that five minutes to quickly pick up the living room as I did not want them seeing our evening mess. I can’t imagine how long that five minutes would have felt had she been unconscious or not breathing. We have been so blessed to have had God’s hand of protection on our children – from Sarah’s heart to Toby’s multiple poison control calls and all the falls, cuts, and scrapes in between.
So, now I can add “called 911″ to my parenting list.
