Adyn Romahn was watching TV as his 2-year-old daughter Emmy played on the floor in front of him. Suddenly, she started coughing.
“It was just uncontrollable. Then, she was flailing her arms around and not making any other noise,” says Romahn. “I immediately recognized that she was choking.”
The CPR training Romahn had received as a pharmacy technician immunizer kicked in, on top of his parental instinct. As his fiancé called 911, he started with back pats and abdominal thrusts on Emmy, then a throat sweep, removing a piece of plastic, and administered rescue breaths as she was still unresponsive.
Then, just as suddenly, Emmy recovered and began crying.
“The 911 operator on the phone heard her crying and said, ‘You must have gotten her breathing again’,” says Romahn. Within a minute, police and first responders arrived and were able to confirm Emmy was going to be okay.
“It was the scariest moment of our lives for sure and the first time we ever had any sort of emergency with our kids,” Romahn says. “I was just really happy that I was able to help her because I don’t know if she would have made it if I hadn’t.”
Romahn is now the store manager at the Walgreens in Great Bend, Kansas, where he lives with his fiancé Kayla and three children: 9-year-old Cora, 7-year-old Oryn and Emmy. Originally from San Diego, California, the family moved to Kansas for a fresh start and Romahn’s career opportunity.
“I like the small community and it's nice to get to know our customers and patients,” says Romahn. “You can develop much deeper connections with the people you see and help day-to-day.”
Romahn has made a point to share his story of CPR preparedness with his team and encourage them to get trained as well.
“A lot of my team members have young kids as well and have definitely taken an interest because of that,” Romahn says. “As a parent, you can’t always rely on first responders to be there in time for lifesaving—sometimes you might need to provide it.
Walgreens is a national sponsor of the American Heart Association’s Nation of Lifesavers initiative, committed to accelerating and expanding CPR awareness and education efforts. At the top of the association’s summer safety checklist is learning CPR, which families can do through short videos or an online CPR course provided by the association, among other educational resources.
“I never thought I would have to use CPR,” says Romahn. “But an emergency can happen anytime and then you’ve got to just jump in. This is a great opportunity to learn an important skill and maybe one day, it will come in handy.”
