Tracy Pannill of Brookville calls Jessica Cherry her angel.
"She's a beautiful person," Pannill said.
Their lives crossed on February 18, 2010. It's a date Cherry will never forget, and Pannill would like to erase from her memory.
[...]
That day, both women attended a charity quarter auction at K's Restaurant in Brookville. Pannill was sitting at a table with family, with the pile of quarters pushed away from her 8-month-old daughter, Bree. She was feeding Bree baby snacks when her grandmother noticed something wrong.
"She looked down at Bree, and she goes, 'Tracy, I don't think she's breathing,'" Pannill said. "I just looked at her and she was red and her eyes were watering. I just instantly starting panicking. (I) Stood up and looked around and was saying, 'Somebody please help me, somebody please help me.' I didn't know what to do."
As a crowd gathered and Pannill's nightmare began, Jessica Cherry was sitting across the room with her mother. Cherry works as a respiratory therapist at Good Samaritan Hospital, and said when she heard the commotion, instinct took over.
"I immediately went over there," Cherry said. "I took her out of somebody's hands, not sure whose it was, and instantly started doing basically the Heimlich for a baby. (I) Put her over my knee and started doing back blows."
Despite her work, Bree remained limp, and her body turned blue. Cherry eventually turned her back to the crowd and delivered the blows harder.
And then: "A wonderful noise, the quarter popped on the ground," Cherry said. "She just took a big breath."
[...]
"I remember feeling like I had an angel and that God was definitely there that day," Pannill said. "If it wasn't for her I wouldn't have my little girl. I just remember hugging her really tight and thinking, thank you Lord."
Bree instantly returned to her bubbly self, but Pannill and Cherry took a moment to recover.
"We just sat there and cried for probably about 15 or 20 minutes cause it was just the whole emotion of it," said Cherry said. "All I could think about was my little girl. When I got home, my had husband just put my little one to bed and I woke her up and held her because I just needed to hold my own."
Both mothers spent the night hugging their kids a little tighter, and they said they'll always share a bond over what happened that day.
"We'll definitely see more of each other," said Pannill, who said she'd like to get certified in infant
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Originally Posted by TwiztidAngel
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