POTTAWATOMIE COUNTY, Okla. – An Oklahoma sheriff’s deputy is now being hailed a hero.
He saved a 3-year-old boy choking on a quarter.
Victoria Terrill and her son, Chaz, were on their way home from dinner in Shawnee last Friday when Chaz started choking.
She pulled over, and waved down a deputy who just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
It was recorded on the deputy’s body camera.
It`s every parent’s worst nightmare.
“I threw my hands up and I screamed as loud as I could, ‘I need help,’” said Terrill. “’I need help.’”
Her child was choking on what she thought was candy when all of a sudden a Pottawatomie County sheriff’s deputy happened to drive by.
“He turned around and he pulled in,” said Terrill. “He literally just got there in time. He was turning purple. He was turning blue. He was throwing up. I couldn’t get it to come out.”
Deputy William Wheeler says it was nothing short of a miracle.
“I usually go a different way when I go to the district that I work,” said Deputy Wheeler. “For whatever reason, I just happened to drive by that area at that time.”
It took four to five pats on Chaz`s back to get the quarter out.
“Only thing I knew to do at the time. He was too small to do the Heimlich on him. I bent him over at his waist and I started hitting his back and trying to get whatever in his throat to dislodge,” said Deputy Wheeler.
He says he was just doing his job.
“I`m glad I was there and I`m glad I was able to save his life, but I know anybody else in that situation would`ve done the same,” he said.
Terrill doesn`t know how Chaz got the quarter, but she`s using this as lesson to be one step ahead next time. She hopes other parents take this as a warning as well.
“I definitely think I`m going to take a class myself to learn how to do everything I would need to do in that situation because that`s the worst feeling ever, not being able to help your child,” said Terrill.
Chaz got to reunite with Deputy Wheeler on Monday and the sheriff`s department even named him a Junior Deputy for the day.