Milton emergency dispatcher receives state's 911 honors
MILTON - Andrea Smith said she got the ultimate Christmas gift in December when her choking 8-year-old daughter was saved by the Heimlich maneuver and the calm voice of a 911 dispatcher named Brian Foley.
On Wednesday, the state will return the favor: Foley, a Milton police cadet, is to be recognized with the first Massachusetts 911 Honors Award.
"I'd like to think that anyone in the Milton Police Department, if they were put in my shoes, would have done the same thing," said Foley. "It's what we're trained to do. It's our job. Anyone that was put in my spot would have done the same thing."
Foley's spot on the night of Dec. 17 looked like this: Smith dialed 911, frantic because her daughter was choking on a hard candy she had accidentally swallowed. On a recording of the call, Foley can be heard calmly instructing Smith to do the Heimlich maneuver. After Smith tells him she does not know how, he walks her through the life-saving procedure, step-by-step.
Foley said his reaction and quick thinking comes not only from training, but also from his parents: His father, Kevin, is a lieutenant with the Milton police, and his mother, Jane, is a nurse.
"My parents can be pretty cool under pressure," he said. "I think between the two of them, I've been able to develop some poise, and when you do get in those situations the best thing to do is stay under control. They get out of hand pretty quick."
Foley will be one of 11 people honored by the Massachusetts Statewide Emergency Telecommunications Board, part of the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, which is sponsoring the award for the first time. The honorees, who will receive a citation from Governor Deval Patrick, are all dispatchers or police officers whose actions saved lives or prevented crimes.
"We're very pleased that Cadet Foley was able to exercise his experience and avert a potential tragedy," said Milton Deputy Police Chief Paul Nolan. "We're very pleased with him. He's a credit to our department."
Smith made the call shortly after 5 p.m. on that December day, after her daughter, Caroline, sneaked a butterscotch candy while her mother wasn't looking.
"I turned the other way and she took the candy out of the drawer," Smith recalled. A few minutes later, she said, she heard Caroline gasping for breath. "She looked up at me and her eyes were watery and she couldn't breathe."
The three-minute 911 recording narrates moments of terror for Smith, 46, as she clutched her daughter, who was turning blue, begging, "Please come quick" and asking, "What can I do?"
"Can you do the Heimlich maneuver?" Foley asks.
"I don't know how to do it! I don't know how to do it!" Smith responds.
"OK, stand behind her. Do you have her standing up? OK, stand behind her and wrap your arms around her OK? Make a fist with one hand and place your thumb side on the stomach between the bellybutton and the bottom her breastbone; can you do that? Are you doing that right now? OK, then grab your fist with your other hand and do quick upward thrusts into the stomach and just keep doing that."
The next sounds are screaming, crying from both child and mother - you can't tell which is which.
"I got it out!" Smith says finally.
"Right from the first minute, you could tell he was very concerned," Smith recalled of Foley's actions. "He just got right into it really, really fast. Ultimately, he saved her life."
For Caroline Smith, who recently turned 9, the incident has left her a little scared and a little wiser. The day after she almost suffocated, she marched up to the basket of hard candy and threw it in the trash.
"Mommy I'm throwing this out," she said.
Shortly after the incident, Foley had the chance to visit the Smith home and meet the girl he saved and the mother he had assisted. He gave Caroline a large teddy bear and formally received the eternal thanks of a local family.
With two years of cadet service under his belt, Foley would be in a strong position to follow in his father's footsteps. But the University of New Hampshire graduate said he recently took a job in the business development offices of iCapital, a wealth management firm.
He still works part time as a dispatcher and said he hasn't ruled out police work for the future.
"I think whatever Brian decides to do he's going to do it very well," Smith said. 