A stunned mum has told parents to learn CPR after her toddler passed out from swallowing a coin.
Georgia from Queensland, Australia was driving home with her partner when she noticed her three-year-old son, Remington, had appeared to fall asleep in the back seat.
Becoming worried at the out-of-character behaviour from her usually active son once he began drooling, Georgia quickly pulled over into a service station to check up on him.
After unbuckling his seatbelt she began shouting at and gently shaking Remington to rouse him, only to find he had become "floppy" and "lifeless".
Describing the terrifying moment she found her son unresponsive in an exclusive interview with Australian broadcaster 7 News, Georgia said: “He never drools. I tried to wake him up and I couldn’t,”
“He was just all floppy and lifeless. I had no idea what was wrong,”
The mum then delivered Remington back blows and chest compressions in attempt to resuscitate him, before taking him into her arms while her husband drove a nearby hospital after he stopped breathing.
Once doctors stabilised his condition, they performed an X-ray scan to determine what had caused him to lose consciousness — and found a 20 cent coin inside his throat.
The coin, which is similar in appearance and shape to a British 10p coin but slightly wider, had become lodged in a tilted position his oesophagus, leaving him only able to breath through a tiny gap.
An operation to remove the 10 cent then posed some issues with medical staff desperate not to damage his throat, and caused added worry for Georgia when she was informed the piece had fallen into his stomach.
But she was quickly assured that this was in fact one of the safest ways to remove it from his body, and advised her that he would pass it naturally himself within seven days.
The coin stayed longer than expected, however, and after having further scans and his stools checked every day for six weeks there was no sign of it having exited him.
Recalling the agonising wait, Georgia said: “Every X-ray just showed the coin still in his tummy, not moving at all,”
But a final scan the day before a scheduled second round of surgery showed that the 10 cent had finally disappeared, leaving his parents hugely relieved.
Remington, now four, has since made a full recovery and enjoys telling other kids that he had a coin “living inside” him, according to his mother.
But the close call has left a lasting impression on Georgia, who has since undertaken a child CPR course and has urged other parents to do the same should they ever find their child in a similar emergency.
