Staff Reports
An evening last month started out like most babysitting nights for 14-year-old Samantha Welter of New York Mills. Shed taken care of 11-month-old Abigail Detloff, daughter of Paul and Tammy Detloff, so many times before but this time something just wasnt right.
While babysitting Abby at the Detloffs home just across the field from her own house, Sam put Abby down to sleep for the night. Shortly after, Sam heard gagging sounds coming from Abbys room. Realizing the baby was choking, Sam performed back blows and was able to dislodge and remove the foreign object from Abbys mouth, allowing the baby to breathe& and cry. A cry in that situation is a good sound.
Sam, an 8th-grader at New York Mills High School, learned these valuable life-saving skills as part of a first aid unit taught by Karen Johnson, her 8th grade health teacher.
Sam is the daughter of Dan and Bonnie Welter of NY Mills. Tuesday she received a Heart and Stroke Heroes Award by the American Heart Association at the schools scholarship and National Honor Society induction ceremony. Randy Fischer, volunteer and member of the Regional Emergency Cardiovascular Care Committee, presented the Heroes Award.
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The Heart and Stroke Heroes awards were developed to honor local heroes who have saved someones life using an Automatic External Defibrillator, CPR or first aid training; inspired others with their personal stories; taken steps to improve the chain of survival for heart attack or stroke; supported initiatives to improve the cardiovascular health of a community or brought about environmental change to create heart-safe and stroke-safe communities.
Those basic first aid skills Sam learned in her school health class proved to be invaluable in saving Abbys life.
The American Heart Association will be offering a program beginning this summer called Family & Friends First Aid for Children. The first aid course teaches family members and friends the basic skills of first aid for children and includes information on how to manage illness and injuries in a child until EMS arrives. For more information, visit www.americanheart.org .
