Officer Rescues Girl Choking on Candy
A Ventura police officer may have saved the life of a young girl who was choking on a piece of hard candy, police said Sunday.
According to police, an unidentified man flagged down Officer Matt Shepherd near the intersection of Main and Olive streets about 6:20 p.m. Saturday to help 2-year-old Flora Bandaras, who was slipping out of consciousness.
When Shepherd arrived, he found the girl’s mother trying to dislodge the candy, but her frantic efforts were actually making the situation worse by forcing the object farther into the girl’s throat. Shepherd had to restrain the mother, whose identity was not available, before he could use life-saving procedures on the girl.
The mother refused further medical attention and left after paramedics stabilized her daughter’s condition. Both mother and child were Spanish-speaking and could not provide much detail on what had happened, police said.
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