Will Compton recently shared a terrifying moment that nearly took his firstborn daughter’s life. It was an ordinary day that turned into a nightmare in seconds. It’s one of those stories that reminds every parent how quickly things can turn into a life-or-death emergency.
It all started with a magic trick that Will Compton’s wife, Charo, likes to perform. “Charo knows this magic trick to where it’s behind your hair or in your hair or the coin’s like on your elbow and it looks like you eat it,” Compton explained. Rue, 3, had seen this trick several times. She was fascinated, as any little kid would be, and Charo often did it just to get Rue to laugh.
So, just days ago, while Will Compton was at home, Charo was on the couch playing with their younger daughter, Scotty, and Rue was at the table eating lunch. It seemed like any other quiet, routine afternoon. “I didn’t see the coin, and again, mind you, I’m thinking she’s just eating lunch, and I’m trying to get this email off,” he recalled.
But Rue had something else in mind. With no one watching, she apparently decided it was her time to try the magic trick herself. “So, I guess Rue found this euro, this euro coin…” Will said. She tried seeking Charo’s attention, but the mom was busy attending to Scotty.
Compton believes the moment she realized no one was paying close attention, Rue just went for it. “So, I guess, Rue in her mind is like, I’m going to try to do this magic trick on my own.”
That’s when things took a dark turn.
“I’m sitting there on my iPad and I hear like, choking, gagging, and I stop and I look over at Rue and her fingers are down her throat… and buddy, it’s not even registering to me that she’s choking at the moment,” Compton recounted. At first, he thought Rue was just messing around. He even asked her, “What are you doing?”
But she wasn’t playing.
“She starts like, panicking,” he said. That’s when he asked the question that made the room go cold: “Are you choking?”
Charo immediately caught on. She shouted, “She’s choking, she’s choking!” and ran to Rue. “Are you choking on the coin?” she asked. Rue said yes.
Compton jumped into action. He got behind Rue and started the Heimlich maneuver. It wasn’t working. The panic kept rising. “I start like, trying to jump with her to get this coin out. The coin’s not coming,” he said. Even Charo began to worry. “Are you doing it the right way?” she asked.
Then Charo took over, trying to pull the coin out with her fingers. “Charo’s like… starts digging down her throat… she’s like, ‘I got it, I got it’… and tries to get up, and she’s like, ‘I lost it, I lost it.’ And Rue’s panicking, I’m panicking.”
With no other choice, Will grabbed his phone and called 911. “She’s currently choking this coin?” the operator asked. The response felt too slow, stretching Compton’s and Charo’s patience.
As the call dragged on, Charo tried again. Then, through the chaos, Will heard the most relieving words: “I got it, I got it… Coin’s out. She’s fine.” Charo asked him, “Is Rue okay?” Will looked, and Rue was shaken but breathing.
“There was blood everywhere because Charo probably scraped her throat or scraped something inside her mouth,” he recalls. “There was blood on my shirt, blood on the counter.”
The magic trick nearly turned tragic, reminding us how quickly things can spiral out of control. But it also shows that even the most critical situations can be turned around with quick thinking and a watchful eye.
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