Boy Saves Classmate From Choking

Nine years of training enabled a 13-year-old boy to keep his composure and step in to save his best friend’s life when he started choking at school this week.

Patrick Dagher has been training to be a life-guard since he was four-years-old and the life-saving techniques he learned at the pool came in handy on Tuesday when his friend Alex Suddard approached him choking at lunch at Markham’s St. Marguerite Bourgeoys elementary school.

“He stopped breathing and he came to me because I know CPR,” the young and humble hero explained.

“I don’t deserve all this credit for it. I’m just somebody that did something on the spur of the moment like a reflex. Just because I knew I had to do it so I did it.”

Alex ate a piece of steak that got lodged in his throat. He had a drink of water and ate a grape, hoping that would clear the passageway, but instead his throat started to close. He found his friend who promptly took action and started the Heimlich manoeuvre.

“If he wasn’t there I don’t think anybody would have known what to do and I would have been dead,” Alex said of his best friend who he’s known since kindergarten.

This wasn’t the first time Patrick has played the hero. He found himself in a similar situation last year and performed the Heimlich on his mother.

“Without Patrick there’s a very good chance he wouldn’t have survived,” Alex’s grateful father Geoff Suddard said.

“To my wife and I he is a hero.”

Here are the steps of performing the Heimlick manoeuvre, courtesy of the Mayo Clinic. **Please note that these instructions are not meant to replace first-aid training. In order to learn this technique properly you must enroll in a first-aid program (see below):

To perform the Heimlich manoeuvre on someone else:

• Stand behind the person. Wrap your arms around the waist. Tip the person forward slightly. 
• Make a fist with one hand. Position it slightly above the person’s navel. 
• Grasp the fist with the other hand. Press hard into the abdomen with a quick, upward thrust – as if trying to lift the person up. 
• Repeat until the blockage is dislodged.

To perform the Heimlich manoeuvre on yourself:

• Place a fist slightly above your navel. 
• Grasp your fist with the other hand and bend over a hard surface – a countertop or chair will do. 
• Shove your fist inward and upward.

Clearing the airway of a pregnant woman or obese person: 

• Position your hands a little bit higher than with a normal Heimlich manoeuvre, at the base of the breastbone, just above the joining of the lowest ribs. 
• Proceed as with the Heimlich manoeuvre, pressing hard into the chest, with a quick thrust. 
• Repeat until the food or other blockage is dislodged or the person becomes unconscious.

Clearing the airway of an unconscious person:

• Lower the person on his or her back onto the floor. 
• Clear the airway. If there is a visible blockage at the back of the throat or high in the throat, reach a finger into the mouth and sweep out the cause of the blockage. Be careful not to push the food or object deeper into the airway, which can happen easily in young children. 
• If the object remains lodged and the person doesn’t respond after you take the above measures, begin cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The chest compressions used in CPR may dislodge the object. Remember to recheck the mouth periodically.

Clearing the airway of a choking infant younger than age 1:

• Assume a seated position and hold the infant facedown on your forearm, which is resting on your thigh. 
• Thump the infant gently but firmly five times on the middle of the back using the heel of your hand. The combination of gravity and the back blows should release the blocking object. 
• If this doesn’t work, hold the infant face up on your forearm with the head lower than the trunk. Using two fingers placed at the centre of the infant’s breastbone, give five quick chest compressions. 
• If breathing doesn’t resume, repeat the back blows and chest thrusts. Call for emergency medical help. 
• If one of these techniques opens the airway but the infant doesn’t resume breathing, begin infant CPR.

The steps above are a guideline only and are not meant to replace first-aid training. Here’s a list of places in the GTA where you can learn this life-saving techniques and others.

Red Cross Toronto

St. John’s Ambulance Toronto

Toronto EMS