The young mum has been left traumatised by the incident.
Rebecca Fitzgerald lived out every parent’s nightmare when she found her daughter choking and unable to breathe.
Her one-year-old daughter Charli had managed to swallow a clip her mum had put in her hair and it became lodged in her throat, blocking her airway.
“I could hear her wake in her cot on the monitor and then she just went quiet,” Rebecca said of the terrifying moment.
“She just stared at me, vacant, and just tried to gasp for air.
“And she was just really floppy, no noise, just every now and then you would hear this gurgle which meant there was a tiny bit of air getting in, but obviously just not enough,” she told New Zealand’s Seven Sharp.
The panicked mum called emergency services and ran out of the house screaming for help, however, no one came until the paramedics arrived a short while later.
Charli’s airway was eventually cleared by paramedics but Rebecca says she now lives with the guilt of that
The mum is now warning parent to be extra cautious about smaller objects that their child may be able to swallow.
“I used to take everything out of the way, everything, and then it was a hair clip that caused a problem.
“You just have to be so careful.”
