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Kid Rescue Heroes
by Pamela Kramer
Parents, March 2004
Adrianna Field stopped
a child from choking
"Seven-year-old Adrianna Field was sleeping over at
her friend Mary Reis's house when Mary's little
sister, Laura, 5, started choking on a corn chip.
Without hesitation, Adrianna wrapped her arms around
Laura's abdomen, clasped her left hand over her
right fist, and pulled in and up before the girls'
mom, Melinda, who was in the kitchen, even knew
there was a problem. The chip immediately popped
out.
The girls went to tell Melinda what had just
happened. "Adrianna said, 'Laura was choking so I
did CPR.' She meant the Heimlich maneuver but didn't
know the term," says Melinda, who lives in
Middletown, Rhode Island. "She was so matter-of-fact
about it, but I freaked out and wanted to know why
they didn't come get me. Mary said they didn't need
to because Adrianna took care of it."
Adrianna knew how to perform the Heimlich maneuver
because since age 3, she'd been tagging along to the
health and safety classes her mom, Michele, teaches
for the American Red Cross. "She loves teaching with
me and cries if she can't come," says Michele, who
recently moved to Millsboro, Delaware. Adrianna also
knows how to clear an obstructed airway, perform
chest compressions, and even apply a pressure
bandage. "This is proof positive that anyone can
learn lifesaving skills and that everyone should
learn them," Michele says.
Skyler Wittman pulled his dad from an icy pond
Skyler and Brandon Wittman, then 8 and 11, were
fossil hunting with their dad, Randy, when they
discovered a frozen pond. Since the ice looked
thick, Randy decided it would be safe to walk
across. But a few minutes later, the ice cracked,
and Randy and Brandon plunged into the deep,
freezing-cold water. "I thought we were goners,"
says Randy, of Quinter, Kansas. "Every time we tried
to lift ourselves up on the edge, the ice broke, and
we fell back in."
Skyler, who had walked ahead with their dog, heard
the loud cracks and looked back to see his father
and brother fall into the water. He started to run
for help, but then he realized he didn't need to:
Just three days before at a Cub Scout meeting, he'd
learned what to do when
someone falls through ice. He found a long tree limb
and extended it to his dad, staying far away from
the edge so he wouldn't fall in too. Randy grasped
the branch and let his son pull him forward to a
spot where he could stand. Then Randy reached for
Brandon and lifted him onto stable ice. Skyler
helped them get out of their wet coats, took off
some of his own clothes, and gave them to his
shivering brother to wear. "Without a doubt, he
saved our lives," Randy says.
Skyler received a certificate of recognition from
the governor as well as the Boy Scout Meritorious
Service Award. Two years later, he still doesn't
think what he did was so remarkable. "What would you
do if someone in your family fell through the ice?"
he asks. "I just wanted to get my dad and brother
out of the water."
Paige Kannall got help for her critically ill father
Robert Kannall, of Highland, Illinois, was getting
his two kids ready for school one morning when he
suddenly collapsed. A diabetic, Robert was having an
insulin reaction, which occurs when blood sugar is
excessively low--and it can be fatal. His vision was
blurry, and he couldn't move his arms or legs. His
wife had already left for work, so it was up to
Paige, then 5, to get help for her dad and calm her
3-year-old brother, Jackson, who was crying and
asking if Daddy was going to die.
Still able to speak, Robert told Paige to get the
phone and call 911. However, she got a recording
saying that the service was no longer available in
their area--even though they live only one block
from the fire station. Instead of panicking, the shy
kindergartner ran upstairs and tried calling again
on another phone. After getting the same recording,
she followed her dad's instructions to dial 0 for
the operator and ask for the Highland paramedics.
When someone came on the line, Paige explained that
there was an emergency at her house and recited
their address.
Paramedics arrived five minutes later, just as
Robert slipped into a diabetic coma. Paige unlocked
the door and let them into the house. "I couldn't
believe she was able to open the door because you
have to wiggle the key in the lock just so," Robert
says. The paramedics immediately gave Robert a
glucose solution and then took him to a local
hospital, where he was treated and released the same
day. "I'm so lucky to have Paige for a daughter,"
Robert says. "She reassured her little brother that
everything was going to be okay, and she stayed calm
in a very scary situation."
Titus Adams saved his mom in a car crash
After Thanksgiving dinner at her parents' house,
Tammy Hill, of Alt, Colorado, strapped her three
kids into their car seats and headed home. When she
unbuckled her own seat belt to reach for her ringing
cell phone, she lost control of her pickup truck. It
veered off the rural highway and rolled over three
times before coming to a rest in a snowy field. The
kids were frightened but unharmed in the backseat.
Tammy, however, had been thrown from the truck and
lay seriously injured and unconscious on the ground.
Always protective of his mother and little sisters,
Titus, then 7, knew that he had to go for help. He
found I-year-old Tierra's pacifier and gave it to
her, and promised 4-year-old Tiffany that he would
come right back. Then, dressed only in pajamas and
socks, Titus crawled out of the truck and ran a
quarter mile through the cold night to a dairy. He
climbed over barbed wire, squeezed under an electric
fence, and even broke down a gate along the way. "My
feet weren't cold because I was running so fast," he
says.
At the dairy, he found three workers who called 911
and brought him back to the truck. Within minutes,
paramedics arrived. Titus gave them the names and
birthdays of his mom and two sisters, and told them
how to reach his dad, Glenn Adams. The paramedics
took the kids in one ambulance and Tammy in another
to a local hospital, where she was treated for a
broken back, ten broken ribs, a broken collarbone,
punctured lungs, and a ruptured spleen. The children
went home with Glenn, Tammy's ex-husband.
A police officer later told Tammy that if Titus had
walked instead of run to the dairy that night, she
probably wouldn't have survived. The paramedics put
her on a ventilator in the ambulance, and they
feared she wouldn't arrive at the hospital alive.
"It's amazing to think that I gave life to Titus,
and then he turned around and gave me my life,"
Tammy says. Titus, who wants to be a rodeo star when
he grows up, says he's proud he saved his morn's
life. "I just did what had to be done," he says.
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