Praise for Cork firefighters who saved 11-month-old from choking to death on piece of toast
Nearly Home Piece Old 11 To A Small Month Choked Home On Sunday Coffey's Death And On Saturday Toast Shane On Daughter, After Alaya, At At Of She Recovering Keane Courtney
Young first-time parents have issued an emotional thank-you to firefighters who saved their baby daughter from choking to death on a piece of toast.
Shane Keane and Courtney Coffey, from Mayfield in Cork City, have also urged parents to get first-aid training after they endured every parent’s worst nightmare over the weekend.
They said they dread to think what might have happened to their 11-month-old daughter, Alaya, if it had not been for the firefighters on duty at Ballyvolane Fire Station on Saturday.
“I genuinely think that if we didn’t stop at the fire station, we wouldn’t have her,” Shane said.
The family was at home in Ballinderry Park on Saturday morning when Alaya, who was sitting on a playmat nibbling on a small piece of toast, suddenly collapsed face down onto the mat.
Courtney called her name, but when she didn’t respond, she picked her up and screamed upstairs to Shane for help. He ran downstairs and said his daughter was turning blue.
“There was no sound out of her. She just started changing colour. I put her over my knee and started hitting her on the back,” he told Neil Prendeville on Cork's RedFM.
He slapped her back about 15 times, in a bid to clear her airway but she was unconscious.
“I then put her on the floor and started giving her chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth. But she was looking at me with her mouth open and her eyes were rolled back in her head,” he said.
An ambulance was called but when the frantic couple heard it could take 10 minutes to arrive, they decided to drive Alaya to hospital themselves.
They set off but as they passed Ballyvolane Fire Station, Courtney told Shane to pull in there when she saw firefighters boarding a fire truck.
They handed their unconscious daughter to firefighters who rushed her inside and began to work on her immediately.
Cork City Fire Brigade second officer Victor Shine said the crew were actually being dispatched to the couples’ house as part of the emergency response just as the distressed couple pulled up outside.
He said firefighters administered five slaps to Alaya’s back, managed to clear the obstruction, a small piece of toast, and then administered oxygen.
They also ensured the ambulance diverted to the fire station.
Paramedics took Alaya to Cork University Hospital, where she was assessed and given the all-clear to return home later.
Shane called back to the station on Sunday with some gifts to thank the crew.
He said he was so relieved he had completed a ‘child first-aid’ through work last year.
“Thank God we did that — we would’ve been lost otherwise,” he said.
But Mr Shine also paid tribute to the parents for doing “an amazing job” by starting resuscitation, making a decision to make their own way to the hospital, and having the presence of mind to stop at the fire station.
“These are probably the most rewarding type of calls — dealing with the very young, the most vulnerable — and to have an amazing outcome,” he said.
“I would encourage everybody to do basic life-saving courses, to be prepared for this. It’s a life skill that everybody should have.”