The Orange County Sheriff's Office shared body camera video of a deputy saving a choking baby.
The incident happened in Central Florida on April 13.
The sheriff's office posted the video on its Facebook page. Deputy Sergio Soares Lemos responded to a call about a one-year-old who was choking.
WATCH: Doctor at John Hopkins All Children's Hospital explains how to respond to a choking baby
He immediately performed back blows to get the child to breathe again. We do not know what caused the child to choke, but the baby is expected to be okay.
Dr. Patrick Mularoni is a pediatric emergency room physician at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital. He explains the deputy's life-saving actions.
"One of the first thing the officer did was place the child's bottom above their head. He really secured that child. He struck the child in between the scapula and what that does is that will compress the ribs, pushing air so that you can dislodge whatever was there. We knew that it was dislodged because we heard the child crying," said Dr. Mularoni.
Dr. Mularoni said to call 911 first. If the child is under the age of one, perform five back blows followed by five chest thrusts.
He said if the object does not come out and the child becomes unconscious, begin CPR.
"If you do not dislodge the object, you want to keep trying to do back blows (backslaps) and chest thrusts until the child becomes unconscious. If the child does become unconscious, then you would move to CPR," he said.
He said back blows may be given at any age. He said doctors do not recommend the Heimlich maneuver on infants 12 months or younger.
"In older kids that are choking, a parent's instinct might be to try and reach inside the mouth or blindly sweep the inside of the mouth. We do not want to do that unless you can see what you're grabbing at, the risk is because you're putting your finger in their mouth, you might push it further down," he said.
"When you’re doing back thrusts or when you’re doing the Heimlich maneuver, this is an athletic thing. You are really striking them because you’re trying to collapse their chest to push all that air so that it provides pressure behind whatever stuck to shoot it out," he added.
Dr. Mularoni said he was seven years old when he choked on a hot dog at a swim meet.
"I was running around, trying to get liquid, trying to do everything. The person I was eating with actually caught up to me, and he had seen it on television, and gave me the Heimlich and saved my life," he said.
He said learning these skills can save a life.
For information from the American Red Cross, click here.
To find a CPR course near you, click here.
Share Your Story with Julie
Julie Salomone works to share the issues that matter to you. And navigating the job market is critical to affording the price of paradise. Julie also focuses on the day-to-day issues in Sarasota County, so be sure to reach out to Julie to start a conversation.
.
Some Moms for Liberty leaders resign, claiming group’s focus has shifted
Original chapter chairs say the parental rights group is plagued by infighting and has abandoned grassroots education issues for politics and money.
