Off-duty paramedic rushes to save girl from choking

Photo: Contributed

Quinn Gallacher is being lauded as a hero after saving the life of a 13-year-old girl who was choking on a water bottle cap in Penticton Tuesday afternoon.

Gallacher, a paramedic stationed in Peachland, was in Penticton with his real estate agent, inspecting a home he is planning to buy.

He says they were on Main Street, going for lunch, when he heard a "blood-curdling scream" coming from a woman in a van parked at the side of the road.

"We spun back around to see what was happening, and there was a mom there screaming. I could see her holding her daughter...she wasn't passing any air and she was going blue. I could tell she was choking on something," Gallacher told Castanet News.

"I gave her three j-thrusts (Heimlich maneuver) and it partially released the obstruction."

Once the cap was partially dislodged, Gallacher says the girl was able to pass air and breathe on her own.

"As soon as I got the air moving I stopped because the main goal was to get her breathing again," he said.

"I didn't have any tools with me so I thought if I could get her breathing, I would wait for paramedics to come and use the tools, but by the time they got there she had expelled it herself."

Gallacher figures the girl had been choking for at least a minute or more by time he got to the scene.

A few more minutes, and the outcome could have been much different.

"She was starting to go limp on me when I started, so I would say a minute or more.

"I'm just glad I was there at the right time."

Gallacher says the girl did expel some blood when she coughed out the cap, so she was taken to Penticton Regional Hospital to get checked out.

He says he's heard from the family, who says the young girl is back with her family, and is doing much better.

Realtor Mackenzie Anderson, who was with Gallacher, says he instinctively jumped into the situation, without any PPE, to help the little girl.

She added it was a chaotic and emotional few minutes, saying there was a feeling of helplessness, not being able to do something yourself.

"Here at the office, we are going to try and organize CPR training to remind us what to do, because I felt bad for the parents and everybody standing there."