Neighbor seen on doorbell camera saving child from choking
An Illinois man saved his neighbor's choking child in a moment that was captured in doorbell camera footage.
In the video, the child's mother, Stephanie George, can be seen running over to her neighbor's house carrying her 7-year-old son.
George's son, Sebastian, has a rare genetic condition called Cornelia de Lange syndrome and eats through a feeding tube, she told Chicago ABC station WLS-TV. On Saturday evening, a piece of chicken that didn't blend up finely enough became lodged in Sebastian's throat, and she quickly realized he was choking.
"I grabbed my phone to call 911, but as I was reaching for my phone and unlocking it and typing in the number and looking to assess Sebastian, he was already blue. And that's when I started to panic," she said.
Fearing it would take emergency responders too long to arrive, George grabbed her son and carried him across the street to the home of her neighbor, Gary Hutchinson.
In the moment captured on the doorbell camera, Hutchinson can be seen answering the door, then laying Sebastian across his knee and gently hitting him on the back until the stuck food was dislodged.
Hutchinson said he has taken CPR training and is grateful he was able to help his neighbors in their time of need.
"I did exactly the way I was trained -- hold the airway open, put the baby on my leg, slight thrust to the upper back," he said. "They taught us in the class that when you need it, you'll know it."
Though George was shaken by the incident, she said Sebastian recovered quickly and has been okay since then.
"Things could have been so much worse," she said.
