Woman's CPR training saves daughter's life BY KATHY CHANG Staff Writer METUCHEN - After six years of annually renewing her CPR [cardiopulmonary resuscitation] certification as a Girl Scout leader, Susan Wilcox never really thought the day would come when she would have to use it on her own 6-year-old daughter. However, the time came on the night of Nov. 8. "I was on the phone with my husband, Scott, who was on a business trip, and I was a few feet away from Regina, but I had my back to her," said Wilcox. "My older daughter, Kerstin [10], saw her fall." Regina was attempting to go up two flights of steps that led into another room. "She hit the spot on the front of her chest and stood up, but then passed out and fell backwards and hit her head," said Wilcox. "I flew by her side and, thank God, I was in rescue mode rather than panic mode. I don't know what I would have done if I didn't have the training. I was going step by step through the training process." Wilcox said all her husband heard was "Hold on, Regina just fell … call 911, she's not breathing." "He just had to hang up and wait," she said. "I don't know what would be worse - waiting and not knowing what happened or seeing it all happen. The poor guy was freaking out." Wilcox, who just had taken the refresher CPR course in June, said the first thing you learn in CPR training is to tilt the head back and clear the airway. "In a split second, she [Regina] was not breathing and unresponsive," she said. "She was already blue … ice cold, going into convulsions and stiff. She was so stiff that I couldn't even tilt her head backwards, and when I put my fingers in her mouth to clear her airway, she bit me." Wilcox said she was baffled how the human body could turn ice cold and stiffen up in a split second. "Logically, I'm thinking, No way," she said. Regina started breathing once her mother tilted her head back and opened up her airway. "It didn't reach the step of chest compressions, which I'm thankful," she said. "We were lucky." Kerstin was on the phone with a 911 dispatcher. "She was relaying all the information I was telling her," said Wilcox. "She was scared to death." Cpl. John Franklin of the Metuchen Police Department arrived at the Wilcox residence followed by the Metuchen First Aid Squad. "My husband called five minutes later and [Cpl. Franklin] got on the phone with my husband," said Wilcox. "He actually had the foresight and said, "Do you want to speak to your daughter?" and put Regina, who was in a neck brace, on the phone with him. It was sweet. I'm glad he did that, because I wouldn't even think of doing that. Here she is in a neck brace and on a backboard and was like, 'Hi, Daddy.' " The Metuchen First Aid Squad transported Regina to Saint Peter's University Hospital in New Brunswick. "The doctors took X-rays, and now she is 100 percent OK," said Wilcox. "I'll pat her on the head and say, 'You really scared me.' She asks, 'Why, Mommy?' She doesn't even know what happened." Wilcox, who received the CPR and first aid training as part of being a Daisy and Junior Girl Scout leader, said she never had to put her CPR skills to the test before. The Girl Scouts of Central & Southern New Jersey currently offers a number of accredited first aid and CPR classes that are designed to provide volunteers with the education, confidence and skills needed to respond in an emergency situation. "We have had emergencies of the kids falling," she said. "I have given out a lot of Band-Aids." Wilcox, who has thanked the Girl Scouts for her training, has organized a first aid and CPR class for her friends. "I have friends that have let their training expire, and 95 percent of them don't have training at all," she said. "I always took my training seriously, but never in my life would I dream that I would have to use it on my own children. It looks like the worst of this is my finger that is still pulsating from Regina biting me [when clearing her airway] and, of course, my nerves that remain shattered." For more information about the Girl Scouts of Central & Southern New Jersey, visit www.gscsnj.org. For more information on first aid and CPR classes, people can visit the Metuchen First Aid Squad's Web site at www.metuchenfas.org or call (732) 906-9549.