Madison Fire medics save choking toddler whose heart had stopped beating

MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) - A Madison Fire Dept. medical team saved the life of a toddler whose heart had stopped beating after he put a bottle cap in his mouth late Thursday morning, and he began choking, the fire department states.

In a report Monday, MFD detailed the events of that morning, explaining that an officer was already giving the 11-month-old boy back blows, trying to dislodge the obstruction, when its emergency medical technicians arrived at the scene, in the 7000 block of Tree Lane, shortly after 11:30 a.m. According to MFD, its EMTs started rotating between the back blows and chest compressions on the boy, but they soon lost his pulse.

They alerted the paramedics who were still on their way and were told to grab a Magill forceps (pictured below) and laryngoscope, so they could pull out the object, the report continued. It states that the EMTs got it out just as the paramedics arrived and took over clearing child’s mouth and airway of fluids.

Soon, the boy’s oxygen levels were improving and he began coming around while on the way to the hospital, according to fire department. When the toddler started to cry, the fire department described it as “a welcome sound to all who had come to his aid.”