Macca’s saved my baby!
When Jodi’s one-year-old son had a seizure, fast food worker Lily knew exactly what to do...
Little Benji Burgess is just one year old, but it seems the adorable toddler already has his very own guardian angel.
His mum Jodi says she’ll never forget that fateful day last month when a trip to a Mcdonald’s in Brisbane almost ended in tragedy.
“The kids were hungry and Benji wasn’t feeling 100 per cent. My husband Steve and I saw the golden arches and decided to keep the kids – Benji and his older sister Melody, three – in the car and use the drive-through,” Jodi, 34, recalls.
“Suddenly, Benji made this strange noise. I turned around and could see his feet shaking,” she remembers, choking back tears. “I started screaming, ‘He’s turning blue, please help me he’s turning blue!’
“Out of nowhere an angel appeared – except she was wearing a Macca’s uniform!”
Heroic Lily Kay, 19, works at Mcdonald’s part-time and has just completed her second year studying to be a paramedic.
“I was behind the drivethrough window and by chance I looked into the back seat and saw Benji and knew he was in strife,” Lily says. “He was convulsing and was a deathly colour of blue. The adrenaline was running through my veins but I knew I had to remain calm.”
Brave Lily instructed her manager Jacob to call an ambulance while she took little Benji – who was now burning up and convulsing – and lay him on his side, applying cold bottles of water between his legs and behind his neck.
For distraught Jodi and her husband, waiting for the ambulance was the longest four minutes of their lives, as their precious little boy lay drifting in and out of consciousness.
“It felt like forever,” she says. “Benji was seizing and Lily was making sure he was breathing and not swallowing his own spit.”
When the ambulance arrived, the paramedics commended Lily for her professionalism and accurate assessment.
“Doctors explained that Benji had a febrile convulsion brought on by a virus. If we hadn’t pulled into the drive-thru, he may have seized in his car seat and we wouldn’t have known,” Jodi says.
“If it wasn’t for Lily I can’t even consider what could’ve happened,” the grateful mum adds. “It’s a miracle he’s alive.”
‘Out of nowhere an angel appeared – in a Macca’s uniform’