First aid call after choke alarm

ASOUTHPORT mum is urging others to take first aid courses after her daughter was left minutes from death when she choked.

Danielle Vaughan’s daughter, Tianni, stopped breathing after a small piece of poppadom got stuck in her throat, causing terror for the then four-year-old and her family.

Panic set in for Danielle and Tianni’s dad Gary as they feared for her life when she stopped breathing or coughing, instead staring at them in distress.

Thankfully, after a few minutes, which Danielle said felt “like a lifetime”, Tianna managed to swallow the food and colour began to return to her face.

Danielle said: “I thought I’d seen choking but this wasn’t like anything I’d seen before.

“We all panicked and I still don’t really know how she was okay in the end.

“If a kid’s like that, if you call an ambulance, you’ve only got a few minutes until it’s too late.”

Danielle has some knowledge of first aid through her job as a care assistant and from seeing it administered on TV, but says the panic made it almost impossible to finish.

After the terrifying ordeal, she attempted to enrol on a first aid course but could not find any within the town.

She is now organising a series of courses around Southport and is urging others to attend to avoid going through a similar experience.

The first session was held at Playtown, on Ocean Plaza, with staff from the play centre among those to take part. Danielle plans to host more sessions around the town and wants to encourage others to take part.

The three-hour courses are designed to help administer first aid to everyone from infants to the elderly and include dealing with choking, resuscitation, dealing with internal and external bleeding, using bandages, and recognising and responding to conditions such as epilepsy, asthma, diabetes and meningitis.

Danielle said: “I started researching first aid courses but all I could find were ones in Liverpool.

“It was such a scary thing to go through and I wouldn’t want anyone else to have to experience that.”

Anyone interested in taking the course can contact her on Facebook.