HOCKINSON — Makena Nelson never thought of herself as the type of student who could jump up and scream in front of the entire second grade. But she found herself doing just that when a friend choked on his lunch.
Makena, 8, and Kaylin Oliver, 7, second-graders at Hockinson Heights Elementary School, were eating lunch in the cafeteria on May 5. Their friend tried to eat a large potato chip, but it went down his throat at a bad angle, and he started choking. He put his two hands up to his neck, and his face quickly turned red.
“He was gasping for air and nobody else even noticed,” Kaylin said.
But the two girls noticed, and their efforts to save their friend were recently honored by Clark County Fire District 3 during an assembly at the school. Fire Chief Steve Wrightson said the girls did exactly the right thing for kids to do when faced with an emergency situation.
“We want them to grab an adult as quick as possible,” he said.
At the assembly, Kaylin was presented with a Good Samaritan award and Tucker Cendana, one of the school custodians, earned a Life Saver award.
Kaylin and Makena stood up as their friend sat on the floor, still motioning toward his neck. Makena pointed out a lunchroom aide and Kaylin took off running. Makena started jumping up and down and flailing her arms to try to get attention from an adult while yelling that her friend needed help.
Recess teacher Linda Bauer ran over to the boy and started the Heimlich maneuver, but she couldn’t get a good grip on him. Some of the other aides ran to Cendana, a maintenance worker and custodian at the school, to ask him to help. Cendana was about 10 to 15 feet away, but hadn’t noticed all the commotion since the cafeteria is typically a loud environment.
Cendana ran over to the student and administered the Heimlich maneuver three or four times until he heard the student’s breathing normalize.
“When I got there, he was drooling,” Cendana, 27, said. “His face was beet red and he was turning purple.”
Cendana knew the Heimlich from his time in the Marine Corps, which he joined after graduating Ridgefield High School in 2008. He served with the Marines for four years. At the time of the incident, he had worked at Hockinson for about 2 1/2 years and he’s since started as an operator at Chemtrade in Vancouver.
Without the efforts of Makena and Kaylin, Cendana said he’s not sure if anyone else would’ve noticed the choking student. The two girls both said it didn’t seem like any other kids realized their friend was choking. Some thought he had heartburn and others thought he was about to throw up. Kaylin said she saw the boy put the potato chip in his mouth, so she knew what happened. Makena realized soon after the friend was choking and sprung into action.
Makena said she wasn’t thinking about it at the time, but now she’s a little embarrassed that she jumped up and yelled in front of the rest of the second grade.
“You saved a life,” Kaylin told her. “You shouldn’t be embarrassed.”
At the assembly, Kaylin’s parents were there along with Cendana’s mother, wife and three kids. He didn’t know the school district reached out to his family to invite them.
Wrightson said if people are willing to get emergency training and use it when needed, it makes a big difference in survivability.
“They’re the first ones there,” he said. “By the time we get called and go through the process of responding, it’s four or five, six minutes. It makes a difference. Six minutes is a long time without breathing.”
