WOOD COUNTY, Wisconsin — A 911 dispatcher calmly talked a mother through abdominal thrusts that restored her choking 7-year-old daughter’s breathing, then stayed on the line until an ambulance arrived, according to two local reports published Aug. 4.
Watch the 49-second WSAW report
The WSAW report below shows the family’s later visit to the communications center and includes the mother’s account of the moment her daughter began breathing and talking again.
Video source: WSAW. The station’s source-hosted report is embedded above; use the source-page link if the media file does not load.
Dispatcher Jessica Arnold gives step-by-step instructions
OnFocus reported that Jordan Wogerman called 911 after finding her 7-year-old daughter, Grace, barely breathing, holding her throat and turning blue after choking on a small toy. ThinBlueNews is using only the child’s first name and age, both of which the family made public through the local reports.
Wood County Communications Center dispatcher Jessica Arnold answered. While another dispatcher sent an ambulance and relayed information to first responders, Arnold verified the child’s age and began giving emergency instructions.
Wogerman said she did not know how to perform the Heimlich maneuver, also called abdominal thrusts. Arnold told her to stand behind the child, make a fist, cover it with her other hand and deliver repeated inward and upward thrusts.
Wogerman followed the instructions. She told the local outlet that her daughter’s color returned and the child began talking, breathing and coughing. Arnold said hearing the cough told her the child was getting oxygen. She continued monitoring the situation by phone until the ambulance arrived.
Child recovers after hospital treatment
The child was taken by ambulance to a Marshfield hospital, according to OnFocus. The outlet reported that the toy moved from the airway into the esophagus and was later removed during an endoscopic procedure.
WSAW reported that the family later toured the dispatch center so staff could see that the girl was doing well. The public reports did not give the exact date of the emergency, describing it only as occurring the prior week, and ThinBlueNews is not inferring a more precise date.
Arnold has worked in dispatch for four years, OnFocus reported. She credited Wogerman with following the phone instructions correctly and said learning the child was OK made the difficult calls worthwhile.
The mother, in turn, praised the dispatchers’ calm coordination and said they do not get enough credit for their work. The response shows how a telecommunicator’s clear instructions can become the first link in the lifesaving chain before responders reach the scene.
Readers can find more source-backed lifesaving work in ThinBlueNews’ first responder news, police hero stories and positive police news sections.
Sources, video and visual attribution
- OnFocus — “Wood County dispatcher guides mother through lifesaving response to choking child,” published Aug. 4, 2026. Detailed local report for the dispatcher’s identity, the mother’s account, emergency instructions, response coordination, hospital treatment and reunion context.
- WSAW — “Wood Co. dispatcher helps mom perform Heimlich saving her daughter’s life,” published Aug. 4, 2026. Local video report independently confirming the child’s age, choking response, recovery and family visit to the dispatch center.
- WSAW source-hosted 49-second video file. Publisher-hosted report embedded above with the WSAW article as the fallback source page.
Featured-image note: The image is a true frame from WSAW’s report at the Wood County Communications Center after the emergency. It does not depict the choking event itself. ThinBlueNews did not generate, reenact or substitute a false emergency scene.
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