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Mississippi girl saves sister from choking
Written by
Season Cooley
, Special to RedCross.org
Thursday, March 02, 2006 — Hattiesburg, Miss. – When Halley Shoemake’s little sister showed signs of choking, Halley, 11, was scared but “I immediately reacted,” she said as she recounted the incident that took place in January.
Halley Shoemake, 11, (right) said that she was at first afraid when she realized that her little sister, Alexis, 9, (left) was choking, but nonetheless reacted immediately to save her life.
(Photo Credit: American Red Cross)
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With their grandfather living just next door in case the girls need anything, Halley and Alexis, 9, were alone outside waiting for one of Halley’s friends. The girls had a box of jawbreakers and Alexis had just tossed another one in her mouth while talking when the jawbreaker became lodged in her throat. At first, she thought she could get it out herself, she said later. It soon became apparent that she could not.
“Oh goodness, I’m gonna die,” she remembers thinking at the time, hoping that her sister would help her but unsure if she knew how.
Recognizing her sister’s distress, Halley performed a few abdominal thrusts. She asked her sister if she was ok, and Alexis said that she was but then clutched her throat again and began turning blue, according to the girls.
Halley took action once again, delivering four abdominal thrusts before the candy dislodged and came out.
“I think I was wrong – she does know how to do it,” Alexis said was her first thought when it was over.
Then, she thanked Halley and told her that she would clean her room for a month.
“I didn’t accept [the offer] because saving my little sister’s life and her still being here is rewarding enough for me!” Halley wrote in a recollection of the events, noting that she most likely knows how to perform the first aid procedure due to the training she received during an American Red Cross babysitter’s training course.
The girls’ mother, LaNette, soon learned of the incident by phone. She was on a hunting trip with her husband, Craig. She said that she could tell by the girls’ reactions, both of them were crying, that it had been a very traumatic event for them.
“I was very scared; I kept wondering what would have happened if Halley had not been through the course,” said LaNette, a nurse. She and her husband, who works for the Mississippi Power Company, are both trained in CPR. “So we are both safety-conscious.”
LaNette said that the skills her children have learned in the babysitting course are not only important through their babysitting years, but through their entire lives.
“We were so thankful,” she said. “We said a prayer and thanked God that they had been led to class.”
Standing in front of a Red Cross emergency response vehicle, Alexis Shoemake demonstrates the universal sign for choking while her sister, Halley, shows how she used abdominal thrusts to dislodge a piece of hard candy from her sister's throat. (Photo Credit: American Red Cross)
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Halley has been nominated for a national Red Cross Certificate of Merit through the South Central Mississippi Chapter of the American Red Cross. She was nominated by her grandmother, Shirley Shoemake.
Shirley works at Wesley Medical Center in Hattiesburg, Miss., which sponsors the two-day babysitter’s training course. It is held once a year during the summer at the Turtle Creek Mall in Hattiesburg.
Shirley has made taking the babysitting course a tradition for her granddaughters. On the first day she treats the granddaughter taking the course to a breakfast of biscuits and gravy at a local restaurant. The next day, they eat lunch at the mall. Halley’s older sister Lindsay, 13, was the first to take the class. Alexis is eagerly awaiting her turn when she turns 11.
“I want to save her (Halley’s) life one day,” said Alexis.
What have the girls learned from the incident? Halley says that she is going to make sure that her children take the course someday and that she will never leave them alone with hard candy. Only if they have adult supervision, added Alexis.
“The story of Halley and Alexis is a perfect example of why everyone needs to get trained in First Aid and CPR,” said Hunter Ruffin, director of preparedness for the South Central Mississippi Chapter. “In the time of an emergency, it is vital to know the steps to take in order to help save a life. With training from the American Red Cross, any person in our community can learn how to help someone in need. Halley’s story of saving her sister proves that we never know when we will be faced with an emergency.”
Season Cooley is the Health and Safety Director of the Southwest Missouri Chapter in Joplin, Mo. She was deployed on a disaster assignment, working out of the South Central Mississippi Chapter in Hattiesburg, Miss., when she learned of this young heroine’s story.
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