Brick Family Thanks Officers Who Helped Save Choking Toddler

BRICK, NJ — "I'm grateful for every extra second, every extra minute that he's here."

Melissa Travers paused for a moment as she recounted the events of June 9, when her 21-month-old son, Bruce, choked and stopped breathing. The toddler survived thanks to the efforts of Brick Township Police Officers Tyler Stephenson and Kevin Docherty, who responded to the 911 call that evening.

"They were here so fast and brought such a sense of calm," Travers said. "We are so grateful."

Travers and her husband, Ryan, reunited with Stephenson and Docherty last week, giving the family a chance to thank the officers for their help in saving Bruce's life, Brick Sgt. Jim Kelly said. Kelly said the officers and the CPR by Melissa Travers resulting in a happy ending to a frightening event.

Travers said June 9 was a typical evening at the family's home on 20th Avenue. Ryan was giving Bruce and his older brother, 3-year-old Will, a bath in preparation for bedtime.

Bruce sometimes has spells where he cries so hard he cannot breathe. "They're hereditary," she said, but only happen sporadically, typically if he is overtired.

Travers was in the kitchen cleaning up and heard Bruce having one of those spells.

"And then he started throwing up," she said. Ryan yelled for her to come upstairs because Bruce was choking on some of the vomit.

In the bathroom, Ryan had turned Bruce over his knee and was giving him hard blows to his back to try to dislodge the food now stuck in the toddler's throat.

"He passed him off to me and we ran downstairs and outside, to make it easier for them to find us," Travers said, noting they called 911 as they ran outside.

Bruce was turning blue by then. They tried more backblows, she said, "and I even tried to do a finger sweep" to get food out of his mouth.

With dispatchers telling them help was on the way from officers nearby, Travers said her training as a nurse — she works part-time at Jersey Shore University Medical Center and also does hospice work with the VNA — kicked in, and she started doing CPR.

Doing CPR on your child is far different than doing it for a stranger, she said.

"I've done compressions on other people," Travers said. "I'll never get that image (of doing CPR on her son) out of my head."

She figures she did two rounds when Bruce began to moan and come around, and that's when Stephenson and Docherty arrived.

Kelly said the two arrived less than 3 minutes after the call came over the air. Stephenson took Bruce, who was limp, and again administered back blows. This time, it dislodged the food.

"However, due to the amount of material Bruce had vomited, his airway was still obstructed," Kelly said. Docherty then used his fingers to sweep the vomitus and regurgitated food out of Bruce’s mouth, and the toddler began to breathe. He was still lethargic, and EMTs Ronald Sottilare and Lindsay Ferko took over, rushing the boy to Jersey Shore Medical Center.

Travers said the hospital did a full battery of tests over the course of four days, and released Bruce after clearing him.

Hearing from the officers that Bruce did indeed throw up "confirmed that he definitely choked," she said, because in the heat of the emergency, she wasn't entirely sure of everything that happened.

It was while they were in the hospital, Travers said, that she and Ryan realized they had not gotten the names of the officers who had helped save Bruce's life. "Thankfully Sgt. Kelly had left his card with the painters" who were doing work at the family's home while they were at the hospital, she said.

Bruce has bounced back, she said, and Will is just young enough that the enormity of what happened didn't really register on him.

Both boys were excited when Stephenson and Docherty returned to visit.

"Kids are so unbelievably resilient," she said. "I'm struggling a lot more."

"We just really wanted them (the officers) to know how grateful we are," Travers said. "They made such a horrible thing so smooth. They were so calming."

The family and officers shared hugs and celebrated a job well done by all, Kelly said.

"It’s comforting to know that you guys are always there for situations like this," Ryan told the officers during the meeting. "We’re just so grateful."

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