Laughing baby is healthy baby

It was early in the morning, the kind of early that leaves you wandering who would even be awake to call for an ambulance. Unfortunately people were awake, and had called for an ambulance. Inconsiderant, I know...

The call was for a 1 month old in respiratory distress - lights were on in an instant and I ran through the checklist of scenarios in my head, equipment that would be brought and, thanks to my Training Officer (TO) who would do what for each scenario with what drugs and treatments we could use.

We got to the address quickly and got into the house, anxious father in tow. In front of us sat the 1 month old, a smile from ear to ear in a warm blanket in Mum's lap.

We ask what had happened, the anxious father tells us how his son had been sleeping, suddenly awoke bright red and had coughed up a fair amount of clear sputum and had gone back to sleep. My TO grins - with 5 kids of his own he knows full well what has happened and later tells me this story is not unusual for first time parents.

It is easy to forget that babies aren't just little people - their brains are still wiring up and many organs aren't fully developed at birth. A good example of this is that babies lose their swallow reflex when asleep - and as was the case here, as saliva is continually produced the baby wakes after having a minor choke on the unswallowed saliva. After getting that out of the way, they usually just go back to sleep - if the parents hadn't been there they would never have even known it had happened. It was almost certainly not the first time this had happened, and definitely wouldn't be the last.

The relieved and sleepy trio came with us to hospital for a 'just in case' checkup, which although we didn't think it was needed were more than happy to provide.

Taken directly from my record; "Pt stable and sleepy en route", laughing to myself I thought the Pt and myself had a lot in common.