A mother has expressed her gratitude towards the heroic air ambulance paramedics who saved her son’s life after he accidentally swallowed a £2 coin.
Nicolle Chapman stated that without the crew’s timely intervention, her eight year old son Riley might not have survived. The incident occurred during a visit to his grandmother’s house in Rothienorman, Aberdeenshire, where Riley’s aunt was teaching him to toss coins.
Unfortunately, one coin went into his mouth and slid down his windpipe. Riley turned purple and struggled to breathe after swallowing the coin in shock instead of spitting it out.
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She told the Daily Record: “I thought I was going to lose my little boy I’ve never been so scared in all my life”.
(Image: Daily Record)
“We used the Heimlich manoeuvre on him and he said he had swallowed it completely and asked for a drink. I knew Riley would never pass something as large as a £2 coin so I called my GP for advice. But while I was on the phone, the poor wee soul was sick and brought up the coin to lodge in his throat again”, reports the Daily Record.
The doctor told Nicolle to dial 999 immediately. Paramedics arrived in an ambulance within minutes and told Nicolle the only option to get Riley to hospital as quickly as possible was by air ambulance.
She exclaimed: “It would have taken nearly an hour to get there by road. I knew by then things were really serious and Riley was in real danger of suffocating if the coin moved again. We heard the helicopter coming in to land outside the house just as another SCAA paramedic arrived in a Rapid Response Vehicle. There’s something so reassuring about these air ambulance paramedics in red suits who are so professional, comforting and efficient. SCAA’s team was absolutely amazing. They took over Riley’s care and made sure that I was OK too.”
(Image: Daily Record)
With the terrifying realisation that the coin was stuck in Riley’s throat at a precarious 45-degree angle, barely allowing him to breathe, the concern was that any shift could mean total obstruction. The emergency airlift to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary last summer was fraught with peril; gag reflexes saw Riley retching blood multiple times during the brief but intense 10-minute flight.
Yet it was the sheer expertise of the aircrew that provided solace and stability in the chaos. The grateful mother said: “I was in total awe of the paramedics”.
“They never let up in their care and commitment to Riley keeping him as still as possible, keeping him calm and monitoring him every step of the way. I trusted them with my little boy his life was in their hands.”
Upon reaching the hospital, Riley received the swift, skilled attention he needed in theatre, where surgeons managed to anesthetise him and adroitly remove the coin from his throat with a clamp. Miraculously, just hours after this ordeal began, Riley could head home, a tad lighter according to family humour by precisely two pounds.