It didn't take a near tragedy to bring Keri Waggener, 13, and Maren Despain, 19 months, close together.
Love that binds the two was already there. But when Keri acted quickly in using the Heimlich maneuver, which she learned in the second grade, to save Maren's life, it strengthened their relationship.Recently Keri, a daughter of Kirk and Kathy Waggener, was tending Maren and her sister, Asha 4 1/2, at the Despain home when Maren picked up a metal jack on the floor and stuck it in her mouth.
The child started choking, and her lips and tongue started turning blue. Keri, an eighth-grader at Olympus Junior High School, picked the youngster up and started patting her on the back. When that didn't work, Maren put the girl on her lap, pressed the youngster's body against her own chest and administered the life-saving procedure.
Keri learned the maneuver while a student at Quail Hollow Elementary School in Sandy but had never had a chance to use it. However, less than a week before the accident, she had occasion at her church building to read a chart describing the procedure.
When Keri first exerted pressure on the child's abdomen, nothing happened. But on a second try the jack was dislodged enough to enable the child to start grasping for air, and some color returned to her face.
Because Maren's parents, Wayne and Cheryl Despain, were out for the evening at a movie, Keri's first instinct was to telephone her mother at the Waggener home. But the teen couldn't get through because her mother was talking on the phone. So Keri called Alicia Harris, a girlfriend who lives next door and who rushed to the Waggener home.
Mrs. Waggener tried to call the Despain home, but she could not get through because the telephone at the Despain home had been knocked off the hook. so she jumped in her van and drove to the Despain home, where she picked up Maren and rushed with Keri to St. Mark's Hospital, about a half mile away.
"Maren was grasping for breath and retching all the way to the hospital. Her breathing was loud, but as we pulled into the emergency room area parking lot she became very quiet. I thought that the jack was again blocking her airway. As we were pulling into the area, I asked Keri to check and see if Maren was breathing," Mrs. Waggener said.
When asked if she was OK, Maren replied cheerfully, "Uh huh."
It wasn't until the child was being examined and prepared for X-rays that Mrs. Waggener discovered Maren was clutching the small jack.
"She looked at me and then she looked at the jack. Maren looked as though she was wondering what we were all worried about," Mrs. Waggener said.
Keri's parents and the Despains credit Keri's training and her calm response to the emergency with saving the life of Maren.
"We are just thankful for Keri and her parents that Maren is all right - because we could have come home to a whole different situation if Keri hadn't acted the way she did," Mrs. Despain said.
Because of the number of young girls who baby sit, Mrs. Despain said she hopes all girls can learn the Heimlich procedure.