A Henryetta teacher had one of their worst fears come about recently and wound up saving a child’s life.
Tiffany Lee, a second-year kindergarten teacher in Henryetta, said she was at her desk when a student came to here and was obviously having problems creating.
“He had a water bottle in his hand and I though he had just taken a drink and it went down his windpipe,” she said.
Lee quickly had him bend over a trash can and applied several hits to his back. That’s when the plastic lid from his water bottle came flying across the room.
Apparently the child had swallowed it and it became lodged in his windpipe.
“We are really super proud of her,” said elementary principal Roger Williams. “This was a life-changing moment.”
He presented Lee with a special award Friday morning before a meeting of all elementary teachers.
As a result of that incident, the school purchased several special masks designed to help dislodge foreign objects from a child’s windpipe.
Looking like a plastic plunger, the device fits across the mouth and is used to suck out the offending objects.
Special bags containing those devices have been placed in the Early Childhood Center, kindergarten building and two in the elementary school.