IL Swimmer Mary Kate Phillips Performs CPR, Saves Choking Neighbor

St. Charles, Illinois swimmer and future Ball State Cardinal Mary Kate Phillips used CPR to save a young neighbor who was choking.

The Kane County Chronicle reports that on July 23, 8-year-old Brooke Baumann was choking on a bite of pancake during breakfast in her home. When her mother was unable to dislodge the food, she ran across the street to the home of Phillips and her family.

The 18-year-old Phillips had just wrapped up her senior year of high school as a class of 2020 graduate from St. Charles North High School. Phillips swam for both St. Charles North and for the St. Charles Swim Team and will be a freshman swimmer for Ball State in the fall.

She’d been trained in CPR through the St. Charles North Physical Education Leaders program by her swim coach Rob Rooney. Phillips’ father tried the heimlich maneuver, but still wasn’t able to clear Baumann’s airway. Then Phillips arrived with her CPR kit and started performing CPR. Chest compressions were able to dislodge the food and allow Baumann to breathe again.

Phillips had frequently babysat Baumann, and even taught her swim lessons for the past four years. Baumann has recovered to full health, and her mother said the doctors were incredibly impressed with how calm and composed the 18-year-old Phillips remained while providing CPR.

“In all of our conversations with doctors and medical personnel… they were all just super impressed by the fact that an 18-year-old girl was able to stay composed and be on top of the situation so well,” Baumann’s mother told the Kane County Chronicle. “She just let all of her training take over. And, was able to just handle it like an adult would, like a trained medical professional would.”

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swimfan210_
3 years ago

Good news!

Retired coach
3 years ago

Congratulations on keeping calm in the storm, Mary Kate! Utilizing the skills and resources you were taught is what makes a “Good” Samaritan.

Swimmer
3 years ago

90% of certified lifeguards would’ve sh** their pants

About Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson swam for nearly twenty years. Then, Jared Anderson stopped swimming and started writing about swimming. He's not sick of swimming yet. Swimming might be sick of him, though. Jared was a YMCA and high school swimmer in northern Minnesota, and spent his college years swimming breaststroke and occasionally pretending …

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