By Wendy Victora
Northwest Florida Daily News
BAKER, Fla. — A Baker woman is crediting her daycare provider with saving her son’s life when he had a medical emergency while in her care.
Nine-month old Kole McIvers seemed fine when his mom, Ashley, dropped him off Tuesday morning. He’d been teething, but didn’t seem ill.
Later that morning, her daycare provider, Diana Casker, called to say he was running a slight fever. Two hours later, she called to say that he was vomiting and that his fever had spiked to 101. While Ashley was driving to pick him up, Kole had a seizure and started turning blue.
“I had him in front of me,” Casker said. “All of the sudden, his arms clenched and he fell backward. I knew he was having a seizure. I laid him on the floor.”
When his lips and fingertips turned blue, she started massaging his sternum, preparing to start CPR. He gasped so she knew he was breathing and the color returned to his lips and fingertips. The seizure continued for 10 minutes, she said. She’d called 911 and about the time the ambulance arrived, his mom pulled up.
Doctors told his mom he had strep throat and that his seizure was caused by his fever. Casker closed her daycare for the day and came to the hospital to be with the little boy she’d cared for since he was 3 months old.
“I told her I was so grateful that she reacted quickly and appropriately,” McIvers said. “She saved my son’s life. Because of her, I got to bring him home Tuesday.”
Casker said she’s been doing daycare for 30 years and this was the first time she’d had to deal with such a frightening medical emergency.
“When they’re in my care, they’re my babies,” she said. “I protect and love them like they were my own.
“This is the first time and I hope to God it’s the last.”
Copyright 2016 the Northwest Florida Daily News