Our little heroine ... Millie, 9, saves choking dad’s life
NINE-YEAR-OLD Millie Murphy used her first aid training to save her father’s life as he choked on a sweet.
Millie, a volunteer with a junior St John Ambulance group, leaped to the rescue of her stricken father James after he collapsed at home, struggling for breath.
The quick-thinking youngster slapped her 40-year-old father hard on his back – and dislodged the tiny chew.
Proud James said: “I could not breathe.
“I had all sorts of awful feelings run through my mind and was panicking.
“I don’t know what I would have done if Millie had not been there. I’m sure I owe my life to her. “She is a little heroine.” The keen amateur cyclist had just finished a gruelling training session when he opted for a quick sugar fix, grabbing a handful of “midget gems” from a bowl.
Moments later one lodged in his throat.
Luckily for him, Millie is a proud “Badger” – a junior with St John Ambulance – and has been a member of her local Bricknell Badger Sett in Hull for a year. Millie, whose mother Shelley Bennett, 42, works at Hull University, said: “We had been talking about what to do if someone chokes at Badgers and it made me confident.
“I hit dad hard between the shoulder blades and the sweet flew out.
“Afterwards I felt proud that I had been able to help my dad but a bit worried, too.
“Luckily, he was fine.”