Teacher To Be Honored For Saving Choking Student

Snack time at Avon Park Middle School recently turned into precious little time to save a choking student.

A 14-year-old boy in a wheelchair was eating cereal Sept. 11 when exceptional student education teacher Debi Phelps noticed he was in distress.

"He started making gasping sounds and had a panicked look," Phelps said.

She asked if he needed help and he nodded.

Phelps immediately went behind him and performed abdominal thrusts and back blows, dislodging the food. After Emergency Medical Services arrived and treated the boy, he was well enough to return to class.

On Tuesday, Oct. 7, at the Highlands County School Board meeting, the American Red Cross will honor Phelps for saving the student's life.

Phelps got her training from a Red Cross course and had just recertified at the end of last school year.

She has had Red Cross training before and used it. The first time was 10-15 years ago on a guest when she worked as a manager/waitress at Walt Disney World; the second time was on her daughter. Her daughter had eaten too much too fast and some of the food slipped into her windpipe.

Phelps is the second Avon Park Middle School staff member to have saved a life in the last four months. Susan Prohaska, the school Health Tech, helped a 12-year-old boy on May 29. She also had Red Cross training.

Prohaska was called to a classroom party to help a student who had turned blue, choking on a large piece of glazed doughnut.

She placed him on the floor, delivered back blows and abdominal thrusts and the child eventually coughed up a wad of dough swollen to the size of a baseball.

That child was treated at Tampa General Hospital.

The Highlands Red Cross honored her on June 17, during the annual Volunteer Recognition Dinner.

"I appreciate my training," Prohaska said. "It does keep you calm."