crisis

This past summer, i was a "teacher" in the infant room at a day care. Even though i was only 18 and had been there for just a few months, i considered myself the most capable out of the three of us in the classroom. The other two woman just did not have the compassion or the drive to be the educators they needed to be. Infants learn faster than any other aged person, why not abuse this! Anyways, one day a child, who was just shy of 9 months, and had the biggest boneheads for parents, was acting funny. At 9 months, this child should not not be spitting up still, however she was, and she still could only crawl. When one of my co-workers picked her up in the morning, she spit up a considerate amount, an amount that was unusual. My co-worker set her down, cleaned up her shirt, and carried on with whatever she had been doing. A little bit later, the same thing had happened, except this time she was coughing, a reaction you do not usually hear from an infant. The floor was then cleaned up, and again no phone calls were made, no worry had been shown. As i was holding another child in my arms, and the sick baby was in a saucer, she suddenly started choking. What was i to do? Where was my co-worker?  How do you give the heimlech to a precious little body? I'm only 18! I quickly laid the child in my arms on her back on the ground and grabbed the one choking on herself. I lifted her up, laid her face down on my forearm, and patted her back. Suddenly vomit spewed from her mouth, all over my pant leg, the ground, and the contraption she was sitting in. This amount of vomit was not even normal for an adult, let alone a 20 pound baby. I leaned her back against my chest and rubbed her back, whispering softly in her ear. She never cried, which scared me even more. Finally a phone call was made and her mom picked her up to take her to the doctors. If my reaction was any slower, who knows what could have happened to this small little girl. I was proud for how quickly and calmly i moved in such a crucial situation. I might have saved a life that day.