A 7-year-old boy was saved by his school bus driver after he started choking.
Security footage captured the incident from inside the bus and was shared by The Independent on YouTube.
Preston Bell was shown laughing with other students when he put a coin into his mouth. The coin became lodged into his throat, and he went to Texas school bus driver Raquel Radford Baker for help.
She immediately jumped into action, carrying Preston off the parked bus to perform the Heimlich maneuver.
Baker is trained in CPR and performed the Heimlich multiple times before Preston’s airway was cleared.
Afterward, Baker said she didn’t know what was happening at first.
“He appeared to be sick, as if he needed to throw up,” she said.
Preston, in turn, expressed his gratitude to his bus driver stating, “She’s my hero because she saved my life.”
According to Statista, over 5,000 people died from choking incidents in 2021.
Although the Children’s Hospital of Chicago reported in 2019 that children’s choking deaths had dropped 75% over 50 years, Science Daily released a Nationwide Children’s Hospital Study which asserted that choking was children’s leading cause of death in 2010, and so parents and child caretakers are still warned to be aware of choking hazards and how to react during choking incidents.
Johns Hopkins Medicine offers a step-by-step guide with illustrations on how to help a child during a choking incident.
They also warn that, “Choking prevents oxygen from getting to the lungs and the brain. Lack of oxygen to the brain for more than 4 minutes may cause brain damage or death.”
“It’s important for all people to recognize and know how to handle choking at home and in public places,” they said.