by Bea Peterson
It’s one thing to train for an emergency. It’s another to react in an emergency. “It’s scary,” said CEO Head Start teacher Donna Hammond. On Monday, December 14, the three-year olds in her classroom on River Road were eating lunch when one of them began to choke. “We always tell them ‘spit it out’,” she said. “But he couldn’t. I could see the panicked look on his face. He was wheezing and starting to turn purple.” Using the Heimlich maneuver as she had been trained to do, she said, “I gave him a big hug a couple of times and, finally, out popped a piece of food the size of a quarter.”
“Everything went smoothly,” said Donna. “One person called 911, another called the parents and another kept all the kids calm. In short order Bill Gaillard of the Hoosick Rescue Squad and the Bennington Ambulance were on the scene.
“It was pretty neat to see Bill Gaillard,” Donna said. “He taught me first aid in seventh grade at Hoosick Falls Central School. I was 13. He was my mentor.” Donna and her co-workers have to update their first aid training almost every year. “I told Bill, wow – it (the Heimlich) really works!”
Donna has been with Head Start for 15 years, and this is the only emergency she has ever had to deal with. “Hopefully it’s the only emergency I’ll ever have to do, other than bumps and bruises. It’s very scary. But at the same time you do what you have to do… then you collapse.” Which is exactly what she did. In a room by herself she collapsed into tears.
The boy’s grandmother is impressed with the CEO Center in Hoosick Falls. “They are so organized, so professional,” she said. “Hoosick Falls is so lucky to have such a place to serve the children of the community. Our family was so lucky that Donna was in that place at that moment. They are all so dedicated,” she said. As for her grandson. He told his parents, “From now on I’m going to chew, chew, chew my food.”
One family thinks of Donna Hammond as a hero, while Donna will tell you she was just doing her job.