Agent’s Advice Helps Save Choking Baby

HOUSTON — An airline reservations agent handling a booking over the telephone helped save a choking infant after she heard, “Something is wrong with the baby,” and she was disconnected.

Siobhan Bell called back the number in Indianapolis and talked a baby-sitter through cardiopulmonary resuscitation techniques on the month-old child last week.

Bell said she heard a child crying as she was making a woman’s flight reservation. Then the crying stopped and she heard someone in the background say, “Oh, my God, this baby’s not breathing. Do something, do something!”

That’s when the connection was cut. When Bell called back, she identified herself and said, “I can help you.” She said the woman responded, “Please, I don’t know what to do. Something is wrong with the baby.”

The 31-year-old Bell, a reservation agent for Continental Airlines, said she found out later that the young woman she had been talking to was a baby-sitter and the distressed voice in the background was the baby-sitter’s grandmother.

When Bell called back, the baby-sitter said the infant had turned gray. Bell, who has had nursing training and has three children, told her to call the child’s parents and 911.

Bell’s supervisor called back the next day and found out that the child is fine.

“I love children and I’m glad that baby was OK,” Bell said.