A Port Alberni daycare worker has been honoured with a B.C. Emergency Health Services "Good Samaritan" award after saving an eight-year-old boy from choking on a piece of bread.
Lisa McFarlane, manager of Fern Valley Out of School Care had just handed eight-year-old Jaxson a piece of warm bread when he began choking on the bread. McFarlane used back blows learned in multiple first aid courses to help dislodge the bread from Jaxson's throat.
Paramedic Annaliese McDowall and acting unit chief Kristina Bachmeier presented the award to McFarlane on Nov. 8, 2024 at the Port Alberni ambulance station. McDowall called McFarlane "a brave individual who without hesitation leapt into assistance for a young boy during a medical emergency."
Jaxson and his parents, Carol Anne and John Zanette, and sister Emma were at the ambulance station to help honour McFarlane.
The B.C. EHS Good Samaritan award honours individuals or groups of people who willingly put their own needs on hold to respond to the needs of others in a medical emergency.
McFarlane has taken many first aid courses over the course of her 18-year childcare career, but this was the first time she had to put her skills to use "to this extreme," she said. "It was just instinctual."
She had taken Jaxson into the kitchen area of the daycare to give him some extra food because he was having an "out of sorts" morning. "He ended up getting kind of silly and putting the whole slice of bread in his mouth. I said 'you're going to end up choking,' and lo and behold, that's what happened. It got pretty serious pretty fast," she explained.
She had him remove some of the bread from his mouth but he began choking. She tried abdominal thrusts then back blows. She instructed another employee to call 911 because "I realized it was getting bad quickly. It wasn't just a little bit of a choke.
"Once I asked Ivy to call 911 it felt that now I need to get us to the point of 'help is here.' I was able to get the piece of bread out just before the paramedics and fire department showed up."
By the time first responders appeared Jaxson was sitting up and ready for assessment. His parents arrived and took him to hospital for further assessment.
It was only after a paramedic said to her "you did a good job, it could have easily gone the other way," that the seriousness of the incident hit McFarlane.
"It was a couple of hours later that the tears came and it sunk in that this day could have turned out a little differently."
McDowall was one of the paramedics who answered the 911 call, and the person who nominated McFarlane for the award. "I think it's great to recognize good things people do and...recognition confirming what people are doing is right," she said.
Paramedics don't get many calls for choking, especially for children, "so when they come in we know it's serious."
