Mum Kayleigh Porter, 28, was terrified when her daughter Skyla, one, recently began choking, throwing up bile and foaming at the mouth.
She instinctively slapped Skyla on the back and called an ambulance, not knowing what had happened to her daughter.
The little girl was rushed to Hull Infirmary Hospital, where doctors thought she might have had a reaction to chickenpox that caused her throat to close up, according to Hull Daily Mail.
But an x-ray soon revealed what had actually happened. There was a penny lodged in Skyla’s throat, and Kayleigh had managed to dislodge it when she clapped her daughter on the back.
Shocking x-ray as baby chokes on penny in front of terrified mum #hulldailymail https://t.co/mGRVXMri2x
— Hull Daily Mail (@hulldailymail) April 12, 2017
Kayleigh, from Bransholme, said she "burst into tears" when she realised it was a coin. "The doctors were in absolute awe at how blocked it was," she said.
"Everyone thought it was a £2 coin or a 2p coin - no one thought it was a penny.
"I felt like the worst parent in the world. I couldn't stop myself from crying, because I thought this had happened because of me.
"Doctors had to try and comfort me, but they couldn't. It felt like my fault, and I still think that now."
Luckily, Kayleigh had basic first aid training, which helped her respond quickly when she saw what was happening. The experience left the young mum feeling very shaken and scared.
"I had never seen anything like it, and there was so much of this bile. The worst case scenarios were going through my head, and I thought she was dying," Kayleigh explained.
"She was foaming at the mouth, so I tilted her over and hit her on her back.
“I didn't react until she started breathing properly again, and I just held her and cradled her as I waited for the paramedics to arrive."
Skyla relapsed in the ambulance when the coin moved in her throat again, but paramedics weren’t aware of what was causing the choking at the time.
Once the x-ray confirmed the presence of the coin, she underwent an operation to remove the penny.
The little girl was allowed back home the next day with her mum, along with the coin as a “souvenir”.
“We were given the penny, and I'm going to keep it for her," the young mum said.
"She was also given a bracelet, and we've got a copy of her x-ray, so I'm going to try and put it all together and frame it."
The mum-of-two said paramedics told her that her actions had probably saved her daughter’s life; and now Kayleigh is planning to start a petition to introduce first aid training to new parents in hospitals.
She said: "I am going to contact local councils and St John Ambulance, to make sure that all first time mothers have basic first aid training and basic CPR.
"It is so easy to learn, and if I hadn't have had the training, Skyla could have died."
