Today, a quarter and a nickel came close to taking away my “baby”, four-year old Benjamin.

Two coins put in the mouth and down the tube while his dad was out running errands.  One frantic call from mom let me know that wherever the coins might be, they were most certainly NOT safely in his stomach. Choking, gagging, and pain in the throat let us know that something was wrong.

I got home quick and we gingerly loaded him up, hoping to keep the coins from moving around and sealing up the windpipes.

Grandpa met us at the ER, taking the older three brothers for some dinner while “the process” began. A quick X-ray revealed not one, as was thought, but two coins lodged… but where?  A sigh of relief was had when it was shown that the coins were past the point of being able to block his breath.  However, the quarter was lodged and was causing the pain from the esophagal muscules trying to figure out what was going on.

The hospital team gathered together, told us the plan, and took our boy into the operating room where they knocked him out with anesthesia. Within moments they were able to reach down with special tools and pull out the coins.

We were home before the sun went down on the horizon.

Rescuing a quarter and a nickle from the esophagus of my boy - $2,500.

Keeping a quarter and a nickle from sliding down the windpipe of my boy - divine.

Thank You Lord for more days I can spend being the father of Benjamin.

p.s. If you think this is too sappy, you’ve probably never sped through rush-hour traffic hoping your baby didn’t choke to death in the back seat.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 31st, 2007 at 11:07 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.