Off duty fireman saves young boy from choking

A FOUR-YEAR-OLD child has an off-duty fireman and first aid –trained hotel staff to thank for his life after he started to choke on an ice lolly. 

Victor Monzon, a fireman in Gran Canaria, was on holiday with his wife and little boy at the island’s Cordial Mogán Hotel. 

It was lunchtime and they had sat on a terrace near one of the swimming pools. His wife then entered the dining room when she noticed the situation: Marcos, a four-year-old boy, had choked on an ice lolly and was suffocating. 

She alerted her husband, who rushed to help, aware that time is of the essence in these cases. The child was already being cared for by the hotel’s sector chief, Juani González, who like the rest of the workers have first aid courses. At that moment, Victor entered and took charge of the situation. 

“Everything happened very quickly, in thousandths of a second,” explained Victor. “I took the child, who has turned blue, and I put him face down to give him a few slaps on the back.” 

What he put into practice was the Heimlich manoeuvre, a first aid procedure that removes obstructions from the airway, using the variant for babies and young children. 

Monzon has praised the staff at the hotel, saying they were very professional.