“I would like to sincerely thank Rescue 7…for being a part of something that saved my daughter’s life”

Dear Mr. Collie & Rescue 7 Team,

My name is James Bland and I took the Rescue 7 Emergency First Aid with CPR Level C and AED course last month.  I took this class mainly because I coach youth girls softball and also because I might be working around children soon. What I didn’t know is how quickly I would be put to the test.

This past weekend as I was browsing the internet, my 13 year old daughter was doing homework and having a snack of frozen fruit.  All of a sudden, my daughter stood up and looked at me with a confused look on her face.  As she walked towards me, I could sense something was wrong.  I asked her if she was okay.  She motioned no with her head without saying a word.  I then remembered just as instructor Brian said, “people cannot talk and rarely have their hands around their neck indicating that they are choking”.  Immediately, I asked my daughter if she was choking and she nodded YES with her head!  As we learned in class, I skipped the back blows in fear of possibly lodging what was choking her deeper into her windpipe and directly proceeded with the Heimlich maneuver.  Within two or three thrusts, a piece of frozen mango came shooting out of her mouth and onto the dining room floor.  Holy crap!  It worked!  What a relief!

After thinking about what just happened, it was a very scary event for the both my daughter and I.  I am just very thankful that I was home at the time and knew what to do.  Shortly afterwards, I educated my daughter on how to perform the Heimlich maneuver on herself should this happen again and she’s alone.

I would like to sincerely thank Rescue 7 and instructor Brian McAlinden for being a part of something that saved my daughters life.  Brian is a very knowledgeable and effective instructor who took the time to explain things in detail and also shared hands on examples of real life emergency situations.  I am extremely grateful for taking this class.

Thanks again,

James Bland