MOM Finds Baby Bl00dy in Bouncy Chair, You Won’t Believe What Happens Next
As difficult as it may be, giving your baby the freedom to grow and see the world from an early age is an important part of parenthood. I’m sure we all wish we could wrap our little ones in a bubble and be by their side in their every moment of need. The truth is, it’s impossible to always be there for them.
But what happens when accidents or circumstances cause more than just cuts and bruises? And what happens when your child is unresponsive and you don’t know how to react? For our protagonist, this terrifying scenario became reality.
Angela Sanders’s life would come to a screeching halt one morning when, as has been the norm since the birth of her five-month-old son, Dakota, the young mother was at home preparing lunch while the baby sat in his high chair in the next room. The kitchen and the baby’s room were just a few meters away. She barely lost sight of him for a few seconds.
But when it comes to the safety of our children, any precaution is too little, and in just a few seconds, what we thought was safe is no longer so, exposing all our weaknesses.
Angela was a new mother. Her husband was a pilot and away from home a lot, and her family lived more than an hour away, so she had to take care of her baby on her own without any help. This was something many mothers dread, but Sanders accepted it without complaint. She wanted to be a mother very much and felt ready for it.
But there are some things that no “how to help raise your baby” manual can help you prevent.
Angela was a writer working from home, writing children’s books, which always allowed her to shape her life with complete freedom. Her schedules, routines, everything she did throughout the day was her decision and nobody else’s.
Therefore, at almost thirty-five years old, Sanders, who had been married for two years to the great love of her life, Peter Wilson, whom she met through some friends, considered herself an enterprising and modern woman. She wanted to become an example to follow for the rest of young and enterprising mothers who, like her, have come to fear motherhood because they do not feel prepared.
Since she knew she was pregnant, Angela dedicated all her efforts to prepare for the baby’s arrival, buying furniture, clothes, toys, painting the room, the stroller, a high chair for feeding, and everything else. They didn’t want to leave anything to chance.
And since they already knew it would be a boy and they’d name him Dakota, everything they bought was personalized with his name or initials. Sanders was the queen of planning. She even allowed herself the luxury of choosing her delivery day as much as possible so that her husband could be present and the child wouldn’t be at risk at any time.
It seemed impossible that something could take this brave mother by surprise, but it finally did. If there’s one thing life is known for, it’s being unpredictable, capable of upsetting even the most detailed and perfect of plans.
And that’s exactly what happened to Angela Sanders one quiet spring morning, when her perfect world of order and routine was shattered, exposing all her fears and creating new ones.
It all started when Angela Sanders was at home with Dakota. The baby was sitting in his bouncy seat, as he did every day at the same time, while his mother was preparing his food. Angela was very calm, preparing her baby’s vegetable puree. She thought everything was going well. She had put on music and had only left him alone for a couple of minutes.
However, when she entered the baby’s room a minute later to check on him, she was met with a truly frightening sight, an image she could never erase from her memory and one that would break her heart.
Little Dakota was sitting in his bouncing chair. His face was red and his lips were purple. He wasn’t crying, he wasn’t moving, nothing. The baby was unresponsive and bleeding.
At that moment, for the first time in her life, Angela didn’t know what to do and had no plan in mind. Seeing her baby in that state, her mind locked up. Sanders couldn’t think clearly. Her emotions took over and panic set in. Little Dakota was not getting any better, and his horrified mother could only cry and scream for help as she tried to understand what happened.
Fortunately, she had an unexpected hero nearby who would put an end to her agony.
It had barely been five minutes since she’d last gone in to check on Dakota. There was nothing nearby that could be dangerous to the baby’s safety, nothing he could cut or bump himself on. The room was made to be the safest place for a baby to play.
Angela didn’t understand what could have happened in that small lapse of time. Why wasn’t he breathing? And what worried her most, and that she couldn’t help but stare at in horror, why was he bleeding? The baby hadn’t moved from the chair. He couldn’t have possibly hit anything.
“Dakota honey, can you hear me? It’s Mommy. What’s wrong? Breathe honey, please! Somebody help me, my son is dying! He’s dying, please!” Sanders cried desperately and helplessly.
It was almost 2:00 in the afternoon. The apartment complex where they lived was not very big; there were only ten neighbors, and most of them were working at that time. It seemed impossible that anyone would hear their call for help. But luckily, an unexpected guardian angel appeared in the area just in time to save her son’s life.
As fate would have it, that day wiring technician Daniel Craft was nearby at the time of the incident. Daniel had just finished a job at the apartment complex and was in his truck ready to move to his next location when suddenly he heard screams coming from inside the complex and ran from his truck to the source of the noise.
It was the screams of Angela, who was crying in desperation as she held her baby in her arms, who was looking worse and worse. Daniel rushed to the source of the screams and hurried to knock on the door of Sanders’s apartment, who ran to greet him and sobbingly explained what had happened.
Craft rushed over to the baby to check on him. Dakota was unresponsive and not breathing. But Daniel, who knew exactly what to do in such situations, wasted no time and immediately jumped into action.
Seeing the baby was unresponsive and seeing the state of nerves and shock the mother was in, Craft called 911 and called upon his military expertise. When he realized that Dakota was cool to the touch and had blue lips, he gently picked up the baby and pulled his head back to allow air in.
Seeing him hold the baby, Angela panicked and asked him if he knew what he was doing and if it wasn’t preferable to wait for the ambulance to arrive. Daniel’s reply put her mind at ease and cleared up any doubts the mother might have had about him and his medical skills.
“Relax, I’m an electrician now, but I was a military doctor for six years. I have high-level medical training and have had to deal with similar situations many times. Don’t be afraid, your son’s in good hands. I’ll try to help you in any way that I can,” explained Craft as he hurried to start the maneuvers to resuscitate the baby.
Seeing that after opening his airway the baby was still blue, Daniel thought he had something in his mouth and was choking on something he’d swallowed by mistake.
“I think he’s choking. He may have swallowed something by mistake. At his age, anything, no matter how small, can clog his throat and cause him to choke. I’m going to try to clear his throat gently. Don’t panic,” Daniel quickly explained before proceeding to clear little Dakota’s throat.
“Do what you have to do, but please save my child!” Sanders exclaimed hysterically.
Craft then very gently stuck the index finger of his hand into Dakota’s mouth and ran it all the way around his mouth to try to clear his throat. Then, as he pulled his finger out, he could hear the baby begin to gurgle and his stomach rise. Within seconds, Dakota started breathing again. He had just saved his life.
“Breathe, that’s it. Okay, we made it. You can relax now, your baby will be fine, I’m sure,” Craft announced with joy as he saw the child begin to breathe on his own and open his eyes.
Angela couldn’t believe it. She took her baby in her arms and started crying. For a few seconds, she thought her son had died, but a complete stranger had saved him. She could only feel gratitude. Sanders said through tears, thanking him over and over again. She was truly devastated by what had happened.
While Angela held the baby, Craft maintained communication with the 911 operator until paramedics arrived. He explained what happened and all the symptoms the baby had when he found him.
The paramedics quickly took Dakota away in the ambulance and stabilized him, but the first thing they said before leaving was that the baby was fine and would recover. That was all Sanders needed to hear at the moment. Daniel Craft even visited Dakota in the hospital the next day to make sure he was okay.
“You’re a hero to us. My family will always be indebted to you, Mr. Craft. Tell me if I can do anything for you, anything, for having saved my son’s life,” Angela’s husband told Mr. Craft when he visited little Dakota in his hospital room.
“You don’t owe me anything. I’ve done what I had to do. As I told your wife yesterday, a few years ago I was a doctor and I dedicated myself to saving lives in the war. There, it didn’t matter who they were; it only mattered how much I could do for them and reduce their pain. Being a doctor is something vocational, and even if I don’t practice now, it’s something that’ll never leave me. Saving your son’s been an honor for me. I’m very happy that I’ve been able to help him,” Craft replied kindly, declining Mr. Sanders’s offer.
Unfortunately, not all the news they were going to receive that day would be good. At the hospital, doctors discovered that Dakota had suffered a ruptured hernia that had caused him to have a seizure. He was unable to breathe and could have died if Craft hadn’t intervened. Fortunately, Dakota made a full recovery and there were no regrets.
“What’s happened to your son could not be prevented. Even by testing him, we wouldn’t have even been able to know what was going to happen. It’s a miracle that that man knew what to do to make the child breathe again; otherwise, the paramedics wouldn’t have arrived on time and the baby would have suffocated,” explained the doctor, very impressed by Daniel Craft’s performance the day before.
Dakota recovered without problems, and the doctors established a plan of visits every two weeks to monitor his evolution and avoid another scare. To us, Daniel Craft is a hero. Thanks to his bravery and quick thinking, Dakota lived to see another day, even though it could have easily been a terrible tragedy.
