A two year old toddler, Jacob Jenkins has died five days after choking on a grape he was eating while at Pizza Hut with his parents.
The toddler was in a coma and had been fighting for his life since Friday evening when he was at the restaurant in Hartlepool. Despite being rushed to hospital, medics were unable to save him and after four days, his life support machine was switched off.
Jacob Jenkins
His mother, Abigail, announced his tragic death yesterday evening on Facebook. She wrote:
‘Me and David [Jacob’s father] want to thank every single person for the support over this awful last few days.
‘Jacob has gained his Angel wings at 7pm as you all set off your balloons. There was nothing else that could be done for Jacob and as hard as it was we chose that time because we knew he would be in thousands of people’s minds at that exact moment.’
But what if your child starts choking, what do you do?
As children grow up they explore their surroundings by putting things like toy cars, beads, buttons, batteries in their mouth. It can be confusing as often food is cut up to bite sized pieces for them and their natural reaction is to pick up anything in front of them and see if it is something to eat.
Firstly the best thing to do is try to make sure all small items which might lead to choking – like Lego bricks, batteries, nuts, and large pieces of hard or semi solid food is kept away from children who can’t cope with them.
Common sense dictates you will be keeping a close eye on you child. In most cases you will see immediately a child becomes distressed after putting something in their mouth. They will be clutching at their neck and chest and won’t be able to breathe.
Of course if your child is ill it may not be that they are choking on an object.
If you can see what the child is choking on first try and remove it but don’t just stick your fingers down the child’s throat as you could make matters worse by poking the object further in.
If your child is making a loud coughing noise then encourage them to keep coughing – it may be that they will clear the blockage themselves.
The Red Cross advice is to beware giving them something to drink as it may make the situation worse.
However if the coughing is not effective or they are silent or can’t breathe shout for help immediately.
Are they conscious?
If they are conscious use back blows.
If your child is under a year old the NHS advice is as follows :
Sit down and lay your baby face down along your thighs, supporting their head with your hand.
Give up to five sharp back blows with the heel of one hand in the middle of the back between the shoulder blades.
NHSGuidance: Give up to five sharp back blows with the heel of one hand in the middle of the back
If your child is over one year the NHS give the following advice for back blows:
Lay a small child face down on your lap as you would a baby.
If this isn’t possible, support your child in a forward-leaning position and give five back blows from behind.
If back blows don’t relieve the choking and your baby or child is still conscious the next step is to give chest thrusts (see below) to infants under one year or abdominal thrusts (see below) to children over one year.
The purpose of this is to create an artificial cough, increasing pressure in the chest and helping to dislodge the object.
The NHS advice for chest thrusts for children under one year is:
Lay your baby face up along the length of your thighs.
Find the breastbone, and place two fingers in the middle.
Give five sharp chest thrusts (pushes), compressing the chest by about a third.
For abdominal thrusts for children over one year, according to NHS advice:
Stand or kneel behind your child. Place your arms under the child’s arms and around their upper abdomen.
Clench your fist and place it between the navel and ribs.
Grasp this hand with your other hand and pull sharply inwards and upwards.
Repeat up to five times.
Make sure you don’t apply pressure to the lower ribcage, as this may cause damage.
Following these chest or abdominal thrusts how is the child?
If the object is still not dislodged and the child is still conscious, keep up the sequence of back blows and either chest or abdominal thrust
Make sure help is on it’s way if you are still on your own
Do not leave the child.
Even if you think the child has coughed up the object still see medical help as it may be that some the object has been left behind or the child has been hurt in the proceedure.
What to do if the child is unconscious?
If the child is unconscious put them on a firm, flat surface and shout for help.
Call 999 and put the phone on loudspeaker so your hands are free.
Again don’t leave the child at any stage.
Start CPR.
The 999 operator will give you details of how to give CPR to a child.
Or you can visit the NHS website.
