News editor
A 10-month-old boy at a rural home southeast of Goessel died Friday, failing to respond to resuscitation efforts by emergency medical personnel after reportedly choking on something.
“We suspect choking on a food particle or foreign object,” Sheriff Robert Craft said.
He was awaiting results of a mandated autopsy conducted Saturday in Sedgwick County to establish an official cause of death.
Harvey County notified Marion County dispatchers about 8 p.m. Friday of a 911 call they received from a residence on 80th Rd. between Eagle and Falcon Rds., about five miles north of Walton.
Dispatchers said Kaison Johnson’s condition was “code blue,” indicating cardiac and respiratory arrest, and that his mother, Heather Johnson, was performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
A sheriff’s deputy, Goessel first responders, and Hillsboro ambulance arrived within 15 minutes. Harvey County reported a paramedic capable of performing advanced life-saving measures was en route from Hesston.
The Hillsboro ambulance transported the boy to Newton Medical Center, stopping at K-15 and Dutch Ave. to pick up the Harvey County paramedic. The boy was pronounced dead at 9:30 p.m.
Emergency Medical Services Director Ed Debesis said an internal incident debriefing to reviewed the call and gave EMS personnel a chance to talk about their reactions.
“It’s letting the providers speak freely with no civilians, no outside people,” he said. “It’s just basically an internal talk. The report back to me was that it went very well.”
Craft said 911 calls from cell phones near county borders can go to Harvey and McPherson counties depending on what tower a call is routed through.
Emergency radios for Marion County law enforcement, fire, and EMS operate on a different frequency from the one used by neighboring counties. Craft said patching communications through dispatchers did not impair emergency responders in this case, but that changing to a common system would be beneficial.
“It just would’ve been nice, simpler for the two EMS crews to communicate directly rather than going through communications,” he said.