THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 3, 1994 TAG: 9406020161
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JO-ANN CLEGG, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: 940603 LENGTH: Medium
Red Cross board members, multi-gallon blood donors, school kids who produced winning posters and the mayor were all on hand. So were the guest speaker, Glenn Corey and the guest of honor, Dean Jenkins.
{REST} Corey, as most Hampton Roads residents already know, anchors the morning and mid-day news on WTKR. Jenkins, as few people probably know, is a bona fide hero of the first magnitude.
At the age of 12, the Salem Middle School sixth-grader has already saved a human life, that of his almost 2-year-old sister, Lauren Whitman.
It happened on May 9. ``I was home from school sick that day,'' Dean said.
At about 8:45 that morning he realized that Lauren, who had been eating Doritos, was choking.
``Tears were coming down her face but she wasn't crying so I knew she wasn't breathing,'' Jenkins explained.
``I just froze,'' his mother, Elizabeth admitted.
``She was kind of hysterical,'' was the way Dean Jenkins put it.
Fortunately the calm, serious youngster, knew exactly what to do.
``I put my finger on (Lauren's) belly button, then put my other finger above it to find the right place to push,'' he said.
``Then I took two fingers and pushed in and up and she coughed up the Dorito. She was standing up but her face was all blue,'' he said.
Once the corn chip was dislodged, both Lauren's breathing and her color returned to normal.
The life-saving technique Dean used is called the choking maneuver. He learned it in a Red Cross baby-sitting course he had taken from trainer Gordon Degges just a month earlier.
``I really didn't want to take it,'' Jenkins said, ``but Mom made me. I was the only boy in the class,'' he added with a shy grin.
On the opening day of the new Virginia Beach office, the mayor presented Jenkins with an official American Red Cross Certificate of Recognition for Extraordinary Personal Action.
``Awarded to Dean Jenkins for utilizing Red Cross lifesaving skills to save a human life,'' the words on the plaque read.
Jenkins' mom stood by proudly as the award was presented, then she made an award of her own.
``I lost one baby before,'' Elizabeth Jenkins said to Degges, ``and I almost lost another. I just wanted to give you this to thank you for teaching my son so he could save my little girl's life,'' she concluded as she handed the instructor a big thank you balloon and a jar of candies.
At the reception that followed the award ceremony, the Jenkins family chatted with the other guests and Dean quietly accepted the congratulations due him.
By that time, however, the young lady whose life he saved had called it a day. While some guests snacked on cake and punch and others rolled up their sleeves to give blood, little Lauren slept soundly against her dad Toney's shoulder, generally unaware that she had been a central figure in all that had gone on.
by CNB