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Little League football coach saves choking 10-month-old

KISKI TOWNSHIP, — Kristian Clayton wears many hats — volunteer coach, veteran, dad, and now hero. On Monday afternoon during football practice, he heard a neighbor yell for help and sprang into action.

“She yelled, ‘Help me, he’s not breathing,’” said Clayton, the coach for the Kiski Valley Little League football team.

Clayton explained that his players had just sat down for a break when he and his fellow coaches heard yelling.

“I started running, and from the time I got to him to getting the (bottle) cap out of his mouth was probably 45 seconds,” explained Clayton.

Rebecca Toth, who lives across the street from the field, told our partners at TribLIVE that her 10-month-old son, James, swallowed a plastic bottle cap and wasn’t moving. That’s when she ran onto her porch and cried for help.

“When I put my finger in his mouth, I could feel it in the back of his throat, but I couldn’t reach it,” said Clayton.

Clayton, a former medic in the United States Air Force, didn’t give up.

“He wasn’t wheezing or anything because it was complexly lodged in his throat,” Clayton said.

Clayton said instead he went in at a different angle and dug deeper until the cap popped out of the infant’s throat, and the child began breathing.

“When he let out the cry, (his) mom kind of collapsed,” said Clayton. He too said he was overwhelmed with relief when he heard the infant begin to breathe.

Overwhelmed with gratitude, mom Rebecca and family all credited Clayton with saving baby James — who is now healthy and strong.

“I was just like I said, reacting and doing something I would hope some would do for mine or any of these kids,” said Clayton.

Clayton said this was a case of the right place at the right time, because had it been any other week, he and his players would not have been on the field.

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