A toddler choked to death on a blackberry while out fruit picking with his father and sister, an inquest heard on Tuesday.
Thomas Ford, 15 months, was in a baby carrier on his father Robert”s back when he was given two berries to eat.
He started to choke and his father tried frantically to save him, pulling him out of the carrier and patting his back.
During the drama he got Thomas’s sister, five-year-old Olivia, to ring his wife Serena, a nurse, at home and within minutes she had rushed to their aid on a bicycle.
She began mouth-to-mouth and chest compressions in a desperate bid to save her little boy’s life.
Paramedics found a faint pulse when they arrived but Thomas had suffered serious brain damage.
He died in his parents’ arms in hospital three days later.
The tragedy happened last September when Mr Ford, 36, took the children for a walk near the family home in Stalham, near Norwich.
“I passed two blackberries to Thomas and I heard him start to cough,” he said in a statement to the court.
“I looked around and could see he was straining.”
The clasp of the baby carrier had been broken and he had tied the strap around his waist, making it difficult to remove quickly.
“I had to take my jacket off and pull Thomas out,” he said.
“I patted his back and tried the Heimlich manoeuvre, hoping to dislodge what was in his throat. I look back and wonder if I could have done this harder.
“I hope nothing like this happens to anyone else. I loved him very much and could talk forever about him. I miss my little man.”
Mrs Ford, who had been at home with the couple’s other daughter, Emily, could hear her husband shouting: “Thomas is choking. He has gone blue” when she received the frantic phone call from the scene.
As she began cycling to them, Mr Ford began running towards home, his son in his arms.
He saw a former neighbour and asked her to phone for help but instead of dialling 999 for an ambulance she rang her husband, a fireman.
The inquest heard the mix-up meant there was a delay in calling an ambulance.
Mrs Ford, 32, said she had no recollection of the frantic bike ride to reach her son but suddenly found herself “kneeling next to Thomas”.
“I started mouth-to-mouth but his chest was not inflating,” she said in a statement to the inquest.
“I carried on with mouth-to-mouth and chest compressions for what seemed like three hours.”
An air ambulance took Thomas to Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.
He was later transferred to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge where the decision was made to take him off a ventilator.
He died on September 30.
Deputy Norfolk coroner David Osborne delivered an accident verdict.
He told Mr and Mrs Ford they were not responsible for their son’s death, adding: “I am satisfied that Thomas’s parents did absolutely everything that they could have done.”
Daily Mail