Boy collapses with a heart attack after choking on chewing gum

A talented young sportsman has been left in a coma after choking on a piece of chewing gum. Rhys Thomas, 15, had a heart attack and lost consciousness after the gum got stuck in his windpipe.

They dialled 999 and Rhys's mother Patricia gave him the kiss of life until paramedics arrived.

The teenager was taken to hospital where he was put on a life-support machine. However doctors fear he will be brain damaged after being starved of oxygen, and may never recover.

Last night Rhys's father, Grahame, 52, a teacher and lay preacher, said he and his wife were praying his son pulled through.

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'Rhys is on life support and can't communicate with us,' Mr Thomas said.

'The damage has been done, to what extent we don't know. Nobody knows, it's very long term.

'We're pretty certain Rhys was chewing gum when he went to bed.

'We keep on asking ourselves "What if?" You can't blame anybody, it's just a tragic accident. People chew gum every day and nothing happens to them.

'Rhys is a quiet child, really kind and helpful. Sport is his life.' The tragedy unfolded at Rhys's home in Holywell, North Wales, last Thursday evening shortly after he went to bed at around 11pm.

Mr and Mrs Thomas were preparing for the funeral of Mr Thomas's mother, Margaret, 77, the following day, and were about to go to bed themselves when they heard gasping and spluttering noises from the teenager's bedroom.

'I could hear noises from Rhys's bedroom and I thought he had his TV on,' Mr Thomas said. 'They were quite strange, distressing noises, deep groaning noises and I assumed he was watching a horror film. 'But when we opened his door there was no TV on. It was Rhys, he was gasping and making these noises.

'Our first reaction was he was having a fit. I rang for the ambulance, but by this time he'd stopped breathing and had turned blue. My wife gave him the kiss of life while I was speaking to the operator. I was giving him compression for what seemed like a lifetime.

'Four paramedics arrived and continued to give him CPR. 'They must have been there for about an hour before they got a slight pulse.'

Rhys, a pupil at Glan Clwyd School, St Asaph, was taken to Glan Clwyd Hospital where doctors continued trying to resuscitate him for another hour.

They recovered a piece of chewing gum from his windpipe and placed him on a life-support machine. He has not regained consciousness since and medics fear he could be severely brain damaged if he recovers.

Mr Thomas said his wife, a bank worker, was 'really distraught' about the tragedy.

The couple, who have two other children, Gareth, 20, and Lowri, ten, kept Rhys's accident to themselves and went to his grandmother's funeral as planned the following day. They told other family members, including Rhys's grandfather, Vincent, immediately after the service.

'I don't really know how we managed it,' Mr Thomas added. 'I don't think I would have got through the funeral. 'Parts of me wanted to tell them, but I thought it wasn't fair.

They were there for my mother.' Rhys, who has ambitions to study sports medicine, plays squash for his county and is in his school rugby team.

His grandmother died in the same hospital unit where he is being treated after falling ill with blood poisoning.