Emergency Room Scare

My heart was beating so fast. I yelled to my husband to call 911. In a matter of seconds, Jack went from enjoying an apple to choking on it. I immediately grabbed him and leaned him over, patted his back so he can vomit it out.  At this point he was crying, gagging and every couple of minutes gasping for  air. The paramedics arrived, my heart slowed down a bit knowing help had arrived, Jack however started to scream in fear with all these strangers trying to touch him. Even though he was no longer choking it did seem to me,  a piece of apple was still lodged in his throat. His face was red, his eyes blood shot red, he was still gagging and pointing with his tiny index finger inside his mouth to tell me something was still there. The paramedics reassured me he was fine because he was crying but still wanted to take him to the hospital just in case. I went inside the ambulance with him as many of our worried neighbours looked on in shock and offered to babysit our older two boys.  In the ambulance, Jack sat on my lap looking quietly around in amazement until he started to vomit. The vomit was clear and mucusy and no sign of any apples. Inside the hospital the nurse checked his pulse as the nice paramedic gave Jack a teddy bear.  She asest the situation as minor and moved us to one of the Emergency rooms. Seconds later my husband arrived and Jack couldn't be happier. Although he was calm and active  he still wasn't himself, face and eyes were still red, tiny dots covered his chest and back, and he continued to gag every couple of minutes and still pointed inside his mouth. The doctor came and reassured George and myself that he probably swallowed the apple and it was mucus from all the crying that was making him gag, he suggested to go home and give him a bottle of milk.  Neither my husband nor I were convinced he was out of the woods. I thought something was still there and if he continued to gag the apple might move and get further lodged in his throat. The doctor looked in his mouth and stated that when a child is choking 99.9 % of the time, their reflexes (eg. gagging and coughing) will remove the object .  As we pulled in the driveway to pick up our older boys, who'd been crying and praying for their baby brother, Jack started to gag and vomit once again but this time voila ... the piece of apple! Almost immediately his red face and eyes, tiny dot covered chest and back returned to normal.  I now felt confident my baby was fine. Thank you God and your angels for looking after my little angel!