Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Hero PC stops girl choking to death
‘I can’t ever express how grateful we are to him. I’m so relieved he was there...’
A mum has told how a heroic off-duty police officer saved her young daughter from choking to death on a snack.
Lucie O’malley, from Chartham, checked on twoyear-old Aibhlínn in her pram and was horrified to see her wide-eyed and with purple lips.
The 34-year-old NHS worker immediately lifted her out, started slapping her on the back and screamed for help from other shoppers at Westwood Cross.
Police officer Nick Bines then arrived “out of nowhere”, took Aibhlínn in his arms and told Lucie to call an ambulance.
He took over first aid and managed to dislodge the food.
“He saved her life,” Lucie said. “I don’t want to think what would have happened if he wasn’t there.”
Lucie had gone with her family to the Broadstairs shopping centre so her other daughter Mai, five, could have a go on the recently-opened Clip ‘n’ Climb centre. Husband Ciaran stayed there with Mai while Lucie took Aibhlínn for a walk in her pram.
The little girl had snacked on some berries and cucumber and
her mum then gave her some “baby crisps”.
As they walked across the retail park, near the Body Shop, Lucie suddenly stopped.
“Something just told me to check on her - she was in a front-facing pram,” Lucie said.
“Something just didn’t feel right. I looked and she was going blue. It was obvious she was choking.
“Her lips were a horrible purple
colour and she was wideeyed and in distress. I screamed for help and got her out of the pram and started to do backslaps.”
Lucie, who works for the Kent Community Health Trust helping people with learning difficulties, is first-aid trained.
“But when it’s your own child it’s a completely different scenario,” she said. “You don’t have the same sort of calm approach.
“It was very scary. It’s every parent’s worst nightmare.”
Within seconds PC Bines, a Met Police officer who was off-duty at the time, appeared by Lucie’s side after sprinting from his car. PC Bines put little Aibhlínn over his knee and was continuously “hitting her back and checking”.
“He felt her do a big inhale and kept rubbing her back and that’s when all the food stuff and
phlegm came up,” said Lucie.
Lucie was “saying ‘thank you’ constantly” to PC Bines, who lives near Dover, as they waited for the ambulance to arrive.
“It was way above the call of duty,” she said.
The ambulance took Lucie and her daughter to the QEQM Hospital in Margate for checks. It was only once they arrived at the hospital that Lucie was able to ring Ciaran - who had no idea what had just happened.
Lucie says she had been in “a bit of daze” and once she calmed down she wanted to thank PC Bines properly.
She posted on social media and hundreds of shares later was able to track him down.
“I can’t ever express how grateful we are to him,” she said. “I’m so relieved he was there.”
PC Bines said: “I’m the father of a young girl and I know that it’s every parent’s worst nightmare for their child to stop breathing.
“As a police officer we are regularly first at the scene of challenging incidents where we need to provide emergency first aid. My instinct and training kicked in and there was no doubt in my mind that I needed to step in to help the child.
“I am grateful to the child’s mother for getting in touch with me and I’m pleased to hear she has made a full recovery.”