REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Saturday August 14, 2004

LITTLE Braiden Simpson needed his hat to protect him from the sun. Luckily his buddy Jackson was there to protect him from the hat.

The two five-year-olds were playing with friends in the playground at St Andrew’s Lutheran College when Braiden raced down the slippery slide.

But his school hat caught on the side of the slide with the cord wrapping tightly around his neck.

Two other kids slid down after Braiden, bumping him, tightening the cord like a noose, cutting off his airway. Braiden was spluttering, fighting to breathe, but remembers trying to call out, ‘I’m dying’.

He said he saw a black cloud moving across his eyes, blood and then total blackness.

His little mate, Jackson Grsinger, who was playing nearby, knew something was wrong when two schoolmates slid down after Braiden.

Jackson ran over to the slide and saw froth coming out of Braiden’s nose. ”I just saw him lying there, and wanted to help,” he said. ”I lifted the hat off and he slid down. I thought he was badly hurt.”

Jackson did not know how long Braiden was on the slide, choking, but he ran off to alert a teacher who then called an ambulance.

When teachers found Braiden they thought he had suffered a fit because of the froth.

Mrs Simpson said that eventually they found a weak pulse and he came around.

“The doctor suggested that the school review its hat policy — it’s not the first incident with hats and often it’s only the difference of a minute,” she said.