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8-year-old boy saved by nurse next door after accidental strangling

Posted at 9:36 PM, Jun 04, 2014
and last updated 2014-06-04 23:36:38-04

WASHINGTON TERRACE, Utah -- An accidental strangling landed an 8-year-old boy in the hospital. He was playing in his room when things went wrong, but he's home safe thanks to the quick actions of his parents, siblings, and next door neighbor.

The accident happened Saturday night in the family’s Washington Terrace home.

David Presher recalls the moment he realized something was wrong: "My son comes right out of the bedroom, 'Andrew, Andrew's strangled, he's strangled.'"

When he found his son moments later, he says Andrew was "... just cold and blue and we just did whatever we could to get him back."

Andrew had been playing on his bunk bed in a makeshift hammock when he somehow got twisted in the fleece blanket. The entire family jumped in to action. As his father got him untangled, his mother and sister quickly got help from next door.

Andrew’s mother, Amie, spoke about their reaction: "I said, ‘Go get Sarah right now, tell her he's not breathing and get her over here fast.’"

Neighbor Sarah, who's also a registered nurse, was there in seconds.

"I ran over, I thought about what I was going to do," Sarah said. "I hopped on, started chest compressions, did rescue breaths, I did three rounds of it and got him back."

Andrew was taken to McKay-Dee Hospital and later flown to Primary Children's Hospital. Andrew doesn't remember much of what happened, but tells FOX 13 News: "All I remember is that I fell out and my eye got bruised."

It's unclear how long Andrew went without oxygen, but doctors tell the family he should make a full recovery.

Sarah tells FOX 13 News she actually took her RN exam Friday, before all this happened, and found out Sunday she passed her test.