Glenpool mom says choking rescue device saved her daughter: ‘It was the scariest minute of my life’

After swim lessons, Morgan Hill’s daughter Stevie usually gets to pick out a lollipop. Hill says she has a rule that Stevie is not allowed to eat it in the car.

“We say you can have it the minute we get home, but not in the car,” Hill said. “Three-year-olds are sneaky.”

Just minutes into the drive, Stevie started choking on the lollipop while in her car seat.

“I heard her coughing, luckily I was able to hear it, it was just a second or two of some choking and then nothing,” Hill said. “Then I asked her 'Are you ok? talk to me.' She wouldn't answer me and so I looked in the rearview and she was panicking. She was silent. She just had this frozen look on her face, and I knew something was obviously wrong."

Hill put her car into park at a red light, grabbed a LifeVac from her diaper bag, and used the choking rescue device on Stevie.

"You never know how you are going to react in a situation like that until you are in it,” Hill said. “You can run scenarios in your head but until you are in it, you just don't know and having a tool like the LifeVac in your arsenal, it gives you a peace of mind, it gave me a sense of control in that situation so I could keep an outward calm as much as possible and deal with that as quickly as possible."

With just one pull, the lollipop popped out.

“I didn't take a breath until she did,” Hill said. “It was the scariest minute of my life.”

Now, Hill says she never leaves home without the device, and hopes her story encourages other parents to be just as prepared.

“It’s one of those things you pray you never need, but you’ll always be thankful you had,” she said.

You can find more information about how the LifeVac device works, by clicking here.