So Close, Its Scary

Have you ever had a near death experience?

I have never personally come close to death and dying, as far as I know, but I’ve had a couple instances where someone I know could possibly have lost their life.

One black Friday, my mom and I were walking out of Fred Meyer’s and someone was coming very fast and not stopping and I pulled my mom out of the way of the car. He didn’t even slow down, he just kept right on driving and he really was only a few feet away from her.

Same thing happened to my second child when she was only three years old at Costco. She was walking with her grandma and saw me walking across the parking lot and rushed towards me. I yelled out her name and she stopped just in time.The driver just kept driving, didn’t even stop to see if she was OK. He may not have even seen her for all I know.

My oldest was three when she choked on asparagus. I put her over my knee and knocked on her back and the whole asparagus came flying out. Apparently she had forgotten to chew???

Recently I have had two experiences that stopped my heart, and then made it race again.

My baby had a very bad cough as a result of a virus that was going around (he happened to get it just as I was having my surgery, which was tough because I couldn’t lift him). We had been steaming him in the bathroom to help things loosen up. I was in there alone with him when he got the mucus stuck in his throat and couldn’t breathe. I haven’t had CPR training in over twenty years, but I didn’t have anyone there to help me so I just put my mouth over his and sucked. I had to do it about four times but it cleared his airway. He recovered quickly after that.

The most recent incident happened just today, and I am still a bit shaky from it. My husband was in the kitchen washing dishes and listening to something on his phone. I was in the back bedroom watching a movie. My mom had just put lunch on the table for the boys (I’m still recovering from surgery and not able to move much) and was going to leave. Thankfully she stayed a little extra to help my oldest boy with a project. Suddenly I hear her shout my middle boy’s name and I knew in my heart that something was wrong and bolted from my bed. She said she looked at him and his whole head was red because he couldn’t breathe. By the time I got to the living room she had done a couple chest compressions and he could breathe again. We didn't know what was in there (there was smoked fish on the table and also pretzels and chips). I looked my little boy in the eyes and watched him struggle to cough it up. I shouted orders to my hubby to get a chunk of bread and wet it in case it was a fish bone because swallowing wet bread will help it go down. We prayed, he coughed the pretzel into my hand. We all breathed again.

Each of these incidents has been so scary. You never truly know how you will react when a situation like this comes up until it actually happens. No matter how prepared you are. And you never know when something like this is going to happen. 

Each of these incidents has made me so thankful. Things could have gone a very different way. Makes me shudder to think of it.

Have you had any close calls? I feel like we mamas feel so inadequate and under-qualified, but when the moments come, we pull through. We have a natural instinct and we follow it. 

I think I am going to sign up for a First Aid/CPR class, though. 

Have you had any close calls while parenting? Please share them in the comments. 

Blessings,

Lee