Two-year-old Markus was eating some fruit for breakfast when he suddenly froze and looked at his dad in panic. Time seemed to stand still for author Mark Wilhelmsson as he watched his son helplessly, realizing his son was choking—and he didn’t know what to do.
Amazingly, young Markus was able to cough up the blockage and breathe normally, but as Wilhelmsson describes in his new book, Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Child’s Life, the experience set him on a course of investigating, learning, and compiling the top things every parent needs to know in a life-threatening situation.
As discussed with podcast host Benjamin Diaz, 8,000 early childhood deaths in the US—and 1,000,000 worldwide—each year are attributable to preventable accidental injuries, according to Safe Kids Worldwide. Now an American Red Cross Certified CPR, AED and First Aid Instructor, Wilhelmsson is on a mission to combat these statistics by educating the true first responders: parents. He writes on everything from busting newborn sleep-safety myths and preventing accidental drownings to home fire safety and—of course—how to rescue a choking child and perform CPR appropriately for a child’s age.
