Bangkok: Rescue workers tried to perform CPR on a 5-year-old boy weighing 50 kilograms who had food stuck in his throat, but were unable to save him and he died, amidst the grief of his family.

According to Thai News Agency, the family was immediately devastated when they learned that rescuers could not save the life of ‘Nong Mai’, a 5-year-old boy, after he choked on food. The father tried to ride a motorcycle to call a taxi to take Nong Mai to the doctor, but the neighbors saw that his condition was not good, so they told him to call an ambulance. They believed the ambulance would have life-saving equipment and helped call rescue workers. At that time, Nong Mai was still conscious, but the neighbors did not know what Nong Mai had eaten or if his illness was acting up because they had previously known that Nong Mai had asthma. He had just been treated and discharged from the hospital a few days ago, but after leaving the hospital, Nong Mai looked normal and healthy. They did not think that this tragic incident would happen.

The boy’s father, Mr. Somilai, who is from Myanmar, said through an interpreter that at first his son was sitting and playing normally. After a while, his son said he couldn’t breathe and asked his father to help him. He was shocked but didn’t know that his son had food stuck in his throat. The food he gave his son was Chinese sausage, milk, boiled eggs, and dragon fruit. He admitted that his son is normally a big eater and is healthy, even though he weighs 50 kilograms.

While the rescuers gave information that when entering the house, they saw that the place where the refrigerator was placed on top had 1 plate and on the plate there were dragon fruit, 1 box of milk, and 1 bottle of water placed together. As for Nong Mai, she was lying on her back in front of the entrance door, her face was dark green, her mouth was pale, she had already lost consciousness and her vital signs were weak. Both the rescuers and the staff from the Erawan Center tried to give her CPR and first aid. At first, Nong vomited out the milk along with a large piece of dragon fruit, leading to the assumption that the dragon fruit she ate might have gotten stuck in her throat. After that, they continued to give her CPR with all their might, but they could not save her life. Nong died. Her parents were in tears, and the relatives who were cheering her on were crying. The volunteers were shocked by the heartbreaking scene.

This case is a cautionary tale for parents to closely monitor their children and not let them play or eat alone. They may also need to learn how to help in the event of a sudden incident where food gets stuck in their child’s throat in order to provide initial care.

Information from Siriraj Piyamaharajkarun Hospital and a clip from the Mahidol Channel suggests ways to observe people with symptoms of ‘food stuck in the throat’, divided into two groups: 1. Food stuck in the throat, a mild type, meaning they can still breathe, cough intermittently, and speak or make sounds. For first aid, try to cough it out yourself and monitor symptoms, or call the hotline 1669 or take the victim to the hospital.

2. Severe choking, severe coughing or unable to cough, unable to breathe, difficult to breathe, difficult to speak or unable to speak, face starts to turn pale, blue, starts to hold their own throat, ask the victim if something is stuck in their throat or not. If they nod because they cannot speak, the first aid method is to stand behind the victim. In the case of children, kneel down. But if it is an adult, stand normally, wrap around the victim’s armpit by making a fist above the navel under the sternum. Use the other hand to wrap the fist, squeeze and jerk the abdomen up and in together strongly under the sternum 5 times each time until the foreign object comes out. If the foreign object comes out or the victim can make a sound, it means that the rescue was successful.

If you still can’t see the foreign object coming out, do not put your hand in the mouth. And if you see that you are starting to lose consciousness or your symptoms do not improve, you must immediately call an ambulance or call the hotline 1669 before starting CPR.