Family thanks Ark City EMS director who saved child

ARKANSAS CITY, Kan. (KSNW) — An Oklahoma family is thanking the Arkansas City Fire/EMS director for saving the life of their 2-year-old child.

Luna, 2, was eating breakfast at a Ponca City restaurant with her family on Aug. 23 when she got a hold of a quarter.

“We had just gone to have breakfast. Luna is usually very good at not putting stuff in her
mouth, especially money,” says Luna’s mother, Elaina Howe, in a news release.

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Fortunately for Luna, Arkansas City Fire/EMS director Jeri Wheatley was having breakfast with her husband nearby and spotted the little girl in distress.

Wheatley sprang into action.

“I noticed her color had changed. She was turning blue. I stood up and grabbed her out of
the chair. I took her away from them and told them I was a paramedic,” says Wheatley. “I
performed a foreign body airway maneuver. It took a couple of times, but the quarter came
out, and she threw up on me, and all was right in the world.”

Elaina, Luna, and her grandparents, Earl and Bridget Howe, are all members of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma. They recently traveled to Arkansas City to thank Wheatley for her actions that day.

Speaking about that day, Earl and Bridget had recently lost their oldest son in a drowning the previous month.

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“We were all emotional and mourning his death, and the thought of losing another family
member would have been even more devastating to all of us,” says Earl. “I’m so grateful that Luna was in the same restaurant as this beautiful lady who stepped up while she was off duty. She was just in the right place at the right time for whatever reason.”

Elaina, Luna, Earl and Bridget presented Wheatley with a Ponca tribal blanket, an important symbol for Native American cultures.

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