12-yr-old saw little sister choking on candy and saved her life using a babysitting lesson she had learned just hours ago
Having the knowledge of a life skill always comes in handy as it helps a person in the most unexpected moment. A 12-year-old girl from McKinney, Texas can vouch for it now as she was able to save her little sister, who was struggling for her life after choking on a piece of candy, using a skill she had learned in a training session just hours ago, as per CBS News. The big sister had enrolled in a babysitting training class, sponsored by the McKinney Fire Department with help from Baylor Scott and White nurses, and what she learned there helped her divert a tragic incident that could have changed her life.
Auri Agramont, 12, and Suri, 8, had taken their dogs out for a walk when the incident took place. As the duo was preparing to get out of the house, the little one started choking. When the elder one noticed, she started panicking. "She (Suri), like, leaned back, to take a deep breath. And she did the motions like to cough, but no air was coming out. So, I got scared. I didn't know what was happening (sic)." A candy was stuck in the little girl's throat and she couldn't breathe because of it. Fortunately, the elder sister had just learned a crucial life-saving skill for similar situations.
Auri had learned the Heimlich maneuver and performed it on her sister which ended up saving her life. The girl had learned the trick just 12 hours before the incident happened and was able to put it to good use to save her sister's life. Auri had been taking the babysitting training classes because she wanted to babysit and for that, she needed to become trustworthy in the eyes of parents. "I've been wanting to babysit, but I kind of wanted to find a reason for parents to trust me with their kids. So, my aunt saw that class and recommended it to my mom," the girl admitted.
The girl was given an award for her remarkable act by the mayor and the city council in front of her parents, who were glad that their daughter's heroic act saved her sister. "Even though, if you do have that training, not everybody has that ability to just stay calm and react and do something. So we are very proud of you that you were able to do it," mom Paula Branez told Auri. The girl tried to do the technique once and then remembered what she had been taught in class. She then calmed down a little bit and did it a second time so her sister was eventually able to breathe.
The mayor told the girl that she should be really proud of herself as he awarded her. "When she was describing the technique that she was using, she described it exactly the way we teach it. So she's paying attention, which is great," Paul Dow, the McKinney Fire Chief, told the outlet. Dow points out that the incident highlights how it is important that everyone should learn basic emergency skills.