A Kitchener mother is thanking a quick-thinking waiter she says saved her baby’s life when he slapped the choking tot’s back to dislodge food blocking his airway.
“That’s your hero!” a beaming Karli Walters said as she and her son Kyle met Mychel Hendricks to thank him for the rapid first aid.
“Honestly, it was a pleasure,” replied Hendricks, smiling.
The nine-month-old began choking as Walters and a friend ate at local restaurant Kelsey’s on Monday, the mother said. Kyle had been eating fries and at first she thought he was just gagging, then her friend said he was choking.
“It sent chills through my body. It’s nothing a mother wants to hear,” Walters told Global News during Thursday’s reunion.
Walters said she tried to get the food out by striking her son’s back but it wasn’t working. He wasn’t breathing and she became hysterical.
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That’s when Hendricks stepped in.
“The next thing I know Michael is there, and I just pass Kyle to him,” Walters said. “We didn’t exchange words or anything. I just knew that this man could save Kyle.”
Hendricks said he had just one thought as he moved in to help.
“I just kept on thinking in my mind, there’s no way this child is going to go while I’m working. There’s just absolutely no way,” Hendricks said.
He said that he initially watched as Walters tried to get the food out, but when she flipped the child over in a desperate attempt to get him breathing again Hendricks knew he had to do something.
“I said, ‘You know what? Let’s just get it done.’ I’m a father. I get it.”
He grabbed the child and hit it in the back until, Walters said, the food “shot out of Kyle’s mouth and he gave a cry, which was the best sound in the world. And he was all smiles after that, it was like nothing had happened.”
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Hendricks was humble in the face of the mother’s praise.
“I don’t think I’m a hero, I’m just fortunate to help out,” he said.
“That’s how I was raised,” Hendricks said. “If you’re in a position to help… you got to step up and do your thing.”
After the baby was breathing again, Hendricks took Walters and her son into the restaurant’s office for privacy until firefighters and paramedics arrived.
“That’s all you can do, right? Just support and help each other out,” he said.
Hendricks may get some more recognition for his good deed.
Kitchener councillor Kelly Galloway-Sealock said in an email he is working with the mayor to find a way to give Hendricks official recognition for his actions.
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