Lunch trip sidetracked by rescue

VILLAGE OF LYONS, Ohio - As Linda Boger drove to a late lunch in Adrian, Mich., on Nov. 18, she never expected that within minutes she'd become a hero.

But along the east side of Division Street near a factory driveway entrance a pregnant woman was screaming and waving. Linda and her daughter-in-law, Nikki Boger, who followed in a car behind her, immediately pulled over.

The young, pregnant mother, known only as Amanda held her two-year-old son in her arms. He was blue and foaming at the mouth.

"The mother started screaming, 'The baby's not breathing!' You could tell she was frantic," Linda recalled.

Without thinking, she put her coat on the ground, took the child from his mother and laid him on top. Then she began giving him chest compressions. It was a technique Linda had seen demonstrated only recently on a daytime medical program - and one she had never before attempted.

"I stayed so calm, I didn't believe it was me," she said.

Her day had begun by driving Nikki to an Adrian repair shop to pick up her vehicle. After shopping in the city, she met with Nikki again, and suggested they have a late lunch at Mario's, a nearby restaurant owned by Linda's niece.

At about 3:30 p.m., they saw Amanda standing with family members near the intersection of Division and East Beecher streets. Nikki pulled her car into the factory driveway, and the woman pulled opened the passenger door, hysterical.

"She said, 'Help me. Something's wrong with my baby,'" Nikki said. "That baby was so blue. His eyes were in the back of his head. It was an awful, awful scene."

She said as 911 was called Linda Boger immediately took charge, giving the boy chest compressions she had seen performed on television. It was thought the boy was choking on a potato chip.

"I'm so proud of her. She has never had any training. It was amazing," Nikki said. "The whole experience seemed like it took hours, but I knew it was minutes."

As Nikki comforted the mother the boy suddenly vomited and seemed to do better. Emergency medical services arrived and applied oxygen.

Linda, 63, said it never entered her mind to do nothing. And although she had never attempted the procedure before, she knew she had to try.

"The baby was bluer than blue. I just started doing chest compressions like I've done them my whole life," she said. "I just kept saying, 'Linda, you can do this.' I could tell that standing there and doing nothing wasn't working."

She had seen chest compressions performed on many television shows in the past, " but I never thought I would use it. But being a mother, I sure didn't want that baby to die. I was just kissing him and hugging him and waited until the rescue squad was there."

Before transporting the boy to Bixby Hospital, the emergency medical technicians thanked Linda for her help. "They said I saved a baby's life today. I didn't think I was a hero. I just didn't want the baby to die," she said.

Adrian Fire Chief Paul Trinka said later the department was not able to comment.

After going to lunch, Linda visited the hospital, where the boy was reportedly doing fine and released later that night. During her visit one of his relatives told Linda: "We were just talking about you. All of a sudden an angel came and saved his life."

She has since kept in touch with the mother. She also plans to get formal training in the rescue procedure along with family members.

Nikki Boger said had her mother-in-law had not taken action, she believes the boy would have died.

"The fact that we were at that location at that moment - it was weird," she said. "I'm so proud of her. For her to do what she did was - wow."

(The Fulton County Expositor newspaper is a FOX Toledo News media partner)