Mum Lauren Poundall is urging other parents to learn first aid after she saved her son Theo’s life when he choked on a button.

Lauren, 23, says she believes she might have lost Theo had she not just attended our baby and child lifesaving course.

Theo was playing in the living room of Lauren’s flat in Throckley, Newcastle when he started to go blue and was struggling to catch his breath.

Missing button

The assistant bar manager was getting ready to go to work in Newcastle early in the morning when her gran shouted through for her.

Lauren recalls: “I said to my grandma, ‘What’s he had?’ and she said he’d been playing with my coat on the floor. When I checked it, there was a button missing – he’d obviously pulled a button off my coat and swallowed it.

“You could see he was trying to breathe but he couldn’t and he’d started to go blue. So I lay him over my knee and started doing back slaps.

A cry of relief

“I was surprised at how calm I was – but I think that was because I’d done the course and knew what to do so I was able to stop myself getting emotional.

“The button was really lodged but I managed to get it out and Theo gave a cry of relief and started breathing again. I dread to think what might have happened if I hadn’t done the course. It definitely gave me the confidence to deal with it in the moment though when I got into work, it hit me what could have happened and it took me quite a while before I felt OK again.”

Lauren decided to enrol for the two hour session run by Debbie Ellerby, Training & Project Coordinator with Children North East’s Whoops! Project at her local community centre because Theo had suffered from erratic breathing in his first few weeks of life. Thankfully, he’s now a happy and healthy 15-month-old.