Familiar voice on 911 call guides mother through saving choking son

Panicked mother Janna Scott said she was “freaking out” when she called 911 from her Lacey home last week to get help for her choking infant son, Jacob.

A familiar voice answered the line – that of her 23-year-old husband, Chris, an Iraq War veteran now in the final stages of his training as an emergency dispatcher in Thurston County.

“My first words were, ‘Chris, he’s choking,’ ” she said.

Coolly and calmly, Chris talked his wife through the proper protocols for what to do.

Janna Scott said 6-month-old Jacob’s eyes were rolling to the back of his head when she made the call. She added that Jacob probably wasn’t breathing for about a minute and a half before she followed her husband’s instructions to put him on his stomach and tap him on the back five times between his shoulder blades to clear his airway.

“It was scary,” she said.

Chris, who left Iraq in September after a one-year deployment as a tank crew member with the Marine Reserves, said it’s in his nature to remain calm under stress.

“That’s just my personality,” he said.

But the Yelm High School graduate who grew up in the Olympia area said that inside, he became scared as he had the dawning realization that he was taking an emergency 911 call from his wife – and that the person in danger was their son.

“My heart was pounding,” he said. “My hands were a little bit shaky.”

Chris said he referred to instructions on what to do in cases involving a choking baby and read them to Janna – standard protocol for dispatchers. He also sent emergency responders to their address.

After Janna patted Jacob on the back, he coughed up a small piece of plastic that he must have ingested after it fell to the ground from a windowsill, she said. He was OK, and the emergency responders who arrived on the scene minutes later did not have to take him to the hospital, she added.

Chris’ training officer at the dispatch center, Tammy Clark, said there’s no doubt that Chris and Janna saved their son’s life. Cook added that immediately after Chris took the call, she walked up to congratulate him, but she had no idea he had been speaking to his wife.

“I said, ‘Chris, you just did an amazing job; you just saved that kid’s life,’ ” Clark said. “And he looked at me a little rattled and said, ‘That was my baby.’ ”

Chris’ employers gave him the rest of the day off.

Under some circumstances, such as law enforcement responses involving potential crimes, dispatchers are not supposed to take calls involving relatives, Clark said. But when there are calls like Janna Scott’s, in which time is of the essence, there isn’t the luxury of handing the call off to someone else, she said.

“Nobody could have done a better job than him,” Clark said. “This is a wonderful story. ‘Semper Fi’ to all the Marines out there.”

Chris definitely is ready to complete his training and start dispatching, Clark added.

On Friday afternoon, the Scotts brought their healthy son to the Thurston County 911 center to share their story.

After Chris returned from his deployment, he went to Germany to visit with his wife and son. In December, the family moved to the Lacey area. Janna is from the Hanover area in Germany.

Jacob loves to crawl around, Janna said, and shows no ill effects from the choking episode.

Janna said in retrospect, she’s not surprised her husband took her 911 call last week.

“He’s the person who’s there for me when something’s going on,” she said. “He did a good job.”

Jeremy Pawloski: 360-754-5465

jpawloski@theolympian.com