Thanks to quick thinking and a little training from his older
sister, Robin Simmons, 12, performed the Heimlich maneuver, saving
his 10-year-old sister and earning him special recognition.
Thanks to quick thinking and a little training from his older sister, Robin Simmons, 12, performed the Heimlich maneuver, saving his 10-year-old sister and earning him special recognition.
Simmons, who will be an eighth-grader at Britton Middle School, was presented Wednesday with a certificate from the Santa Clara County Fire Department for his efforts at his home on Cabernet Circle, just west of the Dunne-Hill fire station. He also will be nominated for a community recognition award.
“When we get positive stuff, we have to acknowledge it just as much as the negative stuff,” Fire Capt. Kevin Murphy said Wednesday.
In June while dining at a Morgan Hill restaurant, Simmons’s younger sister, Kay-Lee, who attends Paradise Valley Elementary School, started choking on a piece of meat. Simmons then jumped up and performed the maneuver.
“We were going through our meal and I heard my little sister coughing,” Simmons said. “I could hear gurgling noises. I got her out of her chair and performed the Heimlich maneuver.”
Simmons’s mom, Nicole, said her son stayed calm and did exactly what he needed to do.
“We were just staring at her,” Nicole said. “We all though she’ll swallow, she’ll be OK. Robin just jumped up and said ‘should I do the Heimlich maneuver?’”
The first piece came out right away. Then he just kept at it and got the final piece out. Robin surprised us. There were four adults at the table and were in awe and he reacted.”
Simmons learned the life saving maneuver from his older sister, Jennifer, who had to take a first-aid class from the United Academy of Martial Arts her karate studio where she taught. He asked her to teach him, and it paid off.
The Heimlich maneuver, created by Dr. Henry Heimlich in 1974, is used when an object is stuck in someone’s throat, stopping their breathing.
A person wraps their hands around the waist of a choking victim and using their fist, thrusts upward on the victim’s diagram. The goal is to force out what ever is lodged in the victim’s throat.
The maneuver is a standard part of any first aid lesson and can be performed by nearly anyone with training.
When asked if he was scared, Simmons said he was more focused on what he had to do.
“I was sort of scared that something was going to happen,” Simmons said. “I had to do something. (When it was all over,) I was sort of relieved. No one wants their little sister to choke to death.”
To sign up for first-aid training, call the Santa Clara County Red Cross at 577-2178 or visit www.santaclaravalley.redcross.org.
