Colin Metzger’s schoolwork may have saved his 4-year-old sister Meg’s life.
Meg was watching TV with Colin, 11, when she started choking on a Pop-Tart. He’d seen it happen before and it had been kind of scary. But this time Colin was prepared. With a quick Heimlich maneuver, he freed her airway before his mother, Stephanie Metzger, even got downstairs — the same Heimlich he had learned at Flint Hills Technical College last month.
“Sometimes I get panicked,” he said. “But I knew I could do it so I wasn’t very scared.”
This was the first year the technical college has held the Kids College, a grade-school-level sampling of the programs available. Colin, who wants to be a chef, had liked the culinary arts course the best. But after what happened two weeks ago, Stephanie Metzger’s favorite will forever be the emergency medical technician course that taught Colin basic CPR and the Heimlich maneuver.
“I was upstairs changing when I heard Colin say ‘Meg, what are you doing?’ and I heard her go ‘aakkk,’” Stephanie Metzger said. “I came downstairs and he was just taking care of it.”
“I think it shocked him that he did it,” she added. “He looked at me and said ‘I really did it!’ ... It speaks well of the program that he can actually do it when it’s time and he needs it.”
On Monday, EMT instructor Barb Evans gave Colin a facemask that he could use in CPR.
“Oh, sweet!” he said.
“I’m proud of you,” Evans said. “That’s what I told (the class) with CPR and the Heimlich maneuver — it will click. I’m very glad you paid attention.”
Pollyanna (anonymous) says...
Way to go Colin! I'll bet Meg was relieved to be free of that nasty pop tart! I'll bet your whole family is sure proud of your initiative to just jump in and help when she needed it most! Maybe you should re-think that chef thing and end up in the medicine business! Great job.
August 14, 2007 at 2:50 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )