THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 22, 1995 TAG: 9508220318
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY W. BROWN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
Cody Stageberg, strapped into his infant car seat Monday morning, gasped for air. His face turned red, then blue.
Luckily for the 17-month-old boy, his older brother had been brushing up on lifesaving techniques.
Michael Martin, 11, quickly loosened Cody's straps, wrapped an arm around his stomach and practiced the Heimlich maneuver that he had learned the night before.
He pushed under and up once. Twice. On the third thrust, a piece of the plain bagel Cody had been munching popped out of his mouth.
``It just happened all so fast,'' Martin said Monday night at his Great Bridge home. ``I just learned it. . . and this morning it really worked in a real event.''
Martin learned how to use the maneuver on a toddler from his uncle, Ricky Felch, a volunteer firefighter in Virginia Beach.
The real-life drill started Monday morning after the family piled into the car. Michael sat in the back seat while Cody snacked on a plain bagel in his car seat. Sister Randy, 4, sat in the front seat. Their mother, Sandy Conkwright Stageberg, left the car for a few minutes to return to the house. That is when Cody began choking. Had Martin waited for help, he said, Cody could have suffered brain damage.
Once Cody's breathing was stable, Martin ran inside the house shouting, ``Mom, I just saved Cody's life!''
Stageberg said she was shocked when she realized what had happened. ``I'm just glad he kept his cool and knew what to do,'' she said. ``It could have been tragic.''
Stageberg, a physical education teacher at Lynnhaven Middle School, has always emphasized the need to teach kids CPR and the Heimlich maneuver.
Michael, for instance, was 7 when he first learned CPR and the Heimlich maneuver. But the technique his uncle taught him this week is designed for young children who could be injured with the more common fist-in-hand move.
Michael, a straight-A student and football player at Great Bridge Middle School North, said he had practiced the technique all morning.
``Now I just hope I won't have to do it again,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by GARY C. KNAPP
Michael Martin, 11, holds his 17-month-old brother, Cody Stageberg.
Cody was in his car seat choking on a bagel Monday when Michael used
the Heimlich maneuver to save his life.
by CNB