KITCHENER -- A Kitchener, Ont., mom is speaking out after she said being certified in CPR helped her save her daughter's life.
Hope Dean said she was driving down a rural road at night when her five-month-old daughter stopped crying and started gurgling.
She immediately noticed something was off so she pulled over, put her hazard lights on and got out. She she opened the back door and the lights came on. That's when she said she could see her daughter had turned blue.
"I took her out of her car seat as quickly as I could, and I put my leg up on the wheel, put her on my leg and just started, I flipped her upside down and just started patting her on the back just as hard as I could and then all of a sudden a big blob of mucus and spit and stuff came out of her," she remembered.
"She started screaming and turning red which I thought was good."
Knowing CPR allowed her to free her daughter's airways. When emergency responders arrived on the scene, Dean said they told her that she had saved her daughter's life.
The young girl was cleared at the scene, preventing a visit to the emergency room.
"If you can do CPR in the first two, three minutes, the chance of survival is higher, it can go up to 40 per cent," said Moges Mulu with St. John Ambulance.
Mulu said CPR is a skill many people think they'll never need, until they do, and knowing what to do could save a life.
"It's usually to someone that you know," Mulu said. "It could be family member, a friend, a co-worker."
CPR certifications are still available during the pandemic, with small class sizes.
Dean's encouraging everyone to learn CPR training so that they're able to act quickly in the crucial moments after an airway gets blocked.
"Had I not taken it, I don't know if I would have been able to react the way I did," Dean said. "I would definitely, definitely recommend getting it, it's extremely important and it save my baby's life."
November is CPR Month at St. John Ambulance. According to the organization's website, more than 45,000 Canadians die every year from sudden cardiac arrest.
