Boy reunites with first responders who saved his life after cardiac arrest at dinner

EDGEWATER, Md — A young boy is alive today after going into cardiac arrest while choking at dinner last month, and he got to meet the first responders who helped save his life Monday.

On Aug. 17, Everett Petri began choking during dinner, sending his family into a life-or-death emergency. His mother, Sherri Petri, said the moment came without warning during a familiar meal.

"Its his favorite meal he was so excited, he was so hungry so he had just thrown it in his mouth and we'd eaten it a hundred times before and this time it just went down the wrong tube."

Sherri said she and her husband acted quickly after noticing Everett was not breathing. She credited her husband's military background and CPR training as critical to the outcome.

"The father having military experience and having CPR training was very crucial in this I really do believe that if those steps of compressions, the Heimlich maneuve, the back slaps, if those weren't implemented we would not have the outcome we have here today," Sherri said.

Sherri called 911 after Everett lost consciousness and went into cardiac arrest.

"He stopped breathing his heart stopped, his organs started shutting down," she said.

On the other end of the line was Angie Risley, a dispatcher at the dispatch center. Risley said the call has stayed with her.

"Calls like this they stick, they get stuck with me a while and you know you kind of go home and, I'm going to get emotional but you just, you hug your kids because you don't know what is going to happen," Risley said.

For Risley, her goal was to keep Sherri calm and walk the parents through proper procedure until first responders arrived four minutes later.

"Its hard but you kind of gotta realize that you're there to help them so the calmer you gotta stay to help them stay calm it works out a lot better," she said.

Sherri said those four minutes felt like four hours.

"It was such a weird experience because your adrenaline is going and it's almost like I couldn't feel anything really," Sherri said.

She said the composure of the first responders helped her stay grounded during the ordeal.

"I was able to use their calm, I was able to feed off of their bravery to keep myself afloat and able to stay grounded in ways I don't think I'd be able to."

About a month later, Everett is happy and healthy. On Monday, he and his mother met the firefighters and paramedics who responded that day. Cory Polidore said seeing Everett reminds the department why their work matters.

"We train for this, we train everyday for this, you know this is our job and we take it serious and things worked out perfectly," Polidore said.

Fire officials are encouraging everyone to learn life-saving techniques like CPR and the Heimlich maneuver. The Anne Arundel Fire Department offers training for both methods.

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