vspace="5" border="3" align="left"> It's a parent's worst nightmare, and one that could have turned fatal, but thanks to a mother's quick reaction, her 6 year old baby is still alive today.

We met Shermadine Dennison, the mother of a special needs child this afternoon and she gave us the details on how she saved her baby's life after she swallowed a dollar coin. Jomarie Lanza reports

This is a one dollar coin - which we're all familiar with - now imagine this being inside your 6 year old's stomach, that's what happened to little Athena last night. She is a special needs child, and her mother Doreen Baltazar was kneading tortillas and says her baby was only a few steps away when it happened.

Doreen Baltazar, Daughter swallowed Dollar Coin
"Last night I was getting prepared to make tortillas and I had on my music a little but loud and something just told me, look at the couch, and when I did I saw Athena laying down and gasping for air and holding her throat. So I went and put my finger down her throat to see if there was anything and I felt something hard, when I felt something hard I screamed out and I said god please help me. And then, what I was trying to do was take out what was in her mouth but when she swallowed it went down deeper and it grabbed her. Throat. So I just took my hand and I beat her back a couple of times and after that she did a hard swallow, and you could tell it was painful because she groaned, but after that she just let out a breath and cried."

Baltazar says It's one of the most frightening things she has ever endured, watching her daughter struggling to breathe and all the while believing that she had swallowed a 25 cent coin, but when she got to the hospital and Athena was checked out by Drs, what they found shocked her.

Doreen Baltazar, Daughter swallowed Dollar Coin
"She has little choking spells because she is autistic and she is always putting things in her mouth but never did swallow I always caught her in time but this time it went down.And I thought it was a shilling, and when she started breathing we rushed her to the hospital and I told the doctors sir my baby just swallowed a shilling, they took her to the x ray room right away and when we did the X-Ray the man said ma'am it isn't a shilling, its a dollar coin. I caught chills."

"They said, miss, right now we can't do anything they said it went down her oesophagus that's the most dangerous spot, and it's in her stomach right now but she will pass it and to just give her papaya, prunes and grapes and that will help her pass it out."

Any parent with little ones will often tell you that things can and will happen in the blink of an eye, but Baltazar says there are things that can be done to prevent these situations from happening or recurring.

Doreen Baltazar, Daughter swallowed Dollar Coin
"Just be vigilant don't have anything small, coins, bottle caps anything round that they could just pick up and put in their mouths and if it does happen try to be calm in that moment, with everything I felt crazy but I said you know what this cannot happen and I think people need to learn the heimlich manoeuvre in Belize."

"Like what I told my daughter I said girl I feel like a superhero I said because it's not anyone who could have worked so fast. You know I'm actually proud of myself because I never buckled, I never buckled, it was when everything was done that's when I felt my feet got weak and I had a terrible headache."

"I just concentrated on getting her airway open."