Gavin Dreben was in English class at Everett’s Eisenhower Middle School. All of a sudden, he needed big help from the teacher. It wasn’t some problem with an assignment, or another kid pestering him. Gavin couldn’t breathe.
The seventh-grader had a Warheads hard candy stuck in his throat.
“I think it was sour apple. A lot of kids were eating them,” Gavin, 13, said Wednesday.
That morning in March, Gavin thought he could swallow the hard lump if he left class for a quick sip of water. He did that, but knew he was still in trouble.
Rushing back into Wayne Thomasson’s classroom, the boy headed straight for his teacher. And Thomasson, Eisenhower’s football coach and assistant wrestling coach, knew what to do in an instant.
The teacher performed what’s known as the Heimlich maneuver. “I gave him three, four, five” abdominal thrusts, Thomasson said. He stood behind Gavin, placing his fist against the boy’s abdomen, and grabbing his fist with the other hand.
“He was pretty brave to come up in front of all his peers. When he came up to me, he pushed past a couple kids,” Thomasson said. The teacher described how Gavin’s face was red and it appeared that bile was coming up from his stomach. The candy didn’t come up, but when Thomasson bent down to get a better grip, he could hear Gavin faintly breathing.
As Thomasson helped the boy, other students raced to the office. “These kids jumped into action,” Eisenhower Principal Stefani Koetje said. “Two kids came running. They threw open the office door saying ‘There is a student choking in our class.’ ”
With the school resource officer, the Everett Police Department’s Officer Shea Alexander, Koetje rushed to Thomasson’s C111 classroom. The teacher’s quick help had moved the Warhead enough so Gavin could breathe, but it was still stuck in a painful spot. Gavin was taken to the health room in a wheelchair. “We gave him warm water, and the candy gradually dislodged further,” Koetje said.
The Everett School Board will honor Thomasson and Gavin during its meeting at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. Mary Waggoner, the Everett district spokeswoman, said board meetings regularly include time for recognition of students and staff. “This is unusual,” she said. “I don’t know that we’ve ever done one for a lifesaving action like this.”
Everett’s Gary and Debbie Stratton are Gavin’s grandparents and guardians. “It scared me to death after I found out. They called me and I rushed up there right away,” Gary Stratton said. “It was pretty scary for him, but he was fine after it was over.”
His grandson, Stratton said, “is a little soccer star in the making.” Gavin has asthma and a peanut allergy, so he’s wary of breathing troubles, Stratton said.
The Strattons were so grateful that they later took boxes of candy to Thomasson and the office staff. “We wanted to say a heartfelt thank you from his grandmother and me,” said Stratton, who’s glad to know that Thomasson and other school staff have first aid and CPR training.
The principal said Everett district coaches and administrators are trained and certified in CPR and first aid every two years. “Something like this doesn’t happen often, but you just never know,” Koetje said.
Michael Codding, a health and safety consultant with the American Red Cross in Seattle, coordinates that training in area workplaces. For choking, he said, the training includes calling for help, then using five blows to the person’s back followed by five abdominal thrusts — the Heimlich maneuver Thomasson used. About 30,000 people statewide are trained by the Red Cross each year, he said.
“When you get trained and certified, you can jump in to respond without having to think about what you’re supposed to do,” Codding said.
What happened at Eisenhower is rare, but hard candies do top the list of foods most likely to land a child in an emergency room for nonfatal choking, according to a 2013 study in the journal Pediatrics. About 60 percent of choking incidents among kids 14 and younger are caused by food in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Hard candies are the top culprit, followed by gum and other candy, meat, bones, and fruits or vegetables. How likely is it that seventh-graders would be sharing vegetables in class?
“It is nice to know that teachers know more than just the things they teach,” Gavin’s grandfather said.
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.
Red Cross classes
Find American Red Cross classes in first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation and other lifesaving skills at www.redcross.org/local/wa/northwestregion/take-a-class.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
