A brave schoolgirl saved her sister’s life using tricks learnt from watching 24 Hours in A&E after the tiny tot choked on a chunk of Milky Bar.
Quick thinking Skye Nelson was just eight when she saved one-year-old Peyton’s life.
Mum Jackie had nipped upstairs leaving her youngest alone in the living room. Moments before she had given her youngest half a square of Milky Bar chocolate.
From the top of stairs she heard coughing but thought nothing of it. But then Jackie heard her eldest daughter Skye yelling in terror.
She dashed to the living room and found Peyton blue and struggling to breathe. Skye was bent over her little sister hitting her repeatedly on the back.
Seconds later Peyton vomited, dislodging the chunk – now a gooey brown mess.
Jackie said: “It wasn’t until I heard Skye shouting ‘Mam, mam!’ that I realised there was something seriously wrong.
“She sounded scared. She wasn’t crying or screaming but you could hear the fear in her voice.
“It sounded like it was just a cough at first. Peyton’s always coughed a lot as a child, you know how some are, so I didn’t think much of it.
“But when I heard Skye scream I knew something was wrong.
Taxi driver husband Roland, 61, was in the kitchen preparing the girl’s dinner and unable to hear the commotion.
Like her mum, Skye is obsessed with real-life medical TV. Her favourite programmes include 24 Hours in A&E and Inside The Ambulance.
This meant Skye, who wants to be a doctor when she grows up, knew what to do when crisis struck.
Jackie, who has another daughter, Ava, five, said: “My heart was going to ten to the dozen
“It was only later on that night when we sat down around the table and we’d calmed down a bit that I realised if Skye hadn’t of acted so quickly I could have lost my little girl.
“Peyton was okay thankfully but we didn’t realise how bad it could have been until we checked with her GP. They told us she was very lucky.”
For her bravery Skye was shortlisted for the Young First Aid Hero award as part of Scottish First Aid Week.
She received a certificate from the Scottish Ambulance Service for her bravery and quick thinking.
Jackie, from Pennyburn, Ayrshire, said she had previously taken a first aid course and made sure Skye knew what to do in an emergency.
She added: “I’m really confident in her abilities. She’s very mature for her age. She likes all the hospital programs and she’s very inquisitive.
“She’s always asking me questions and I try to answer them as best I can.”
