Mum terrified to discover her toddler choking after she put her down for a nap.

Rebecca Fitzgerald, a mum of two from New Zealand, had put her little girl’s hair in pigtails and laid her down for a nap.

She explained to One News New Zealand in an interview that her daughter, Charli, had fallen asleep in the car and Ms Fitzgerald then “transferred her straight into her cot.” Some time later, she heard her wake up on the monitor, but then she heard nothing.

And what followed is every parent’s worst nightmare…

“She just stared at me just vacant and just trying to gasp for air. And she was just really floppy, no noise, just every now and then you would hear this gurgle which meant then there was a tiny bit of air getting in, but obviously just not enough.”

Charli’s hair clip had become loose, and she was choking on it. Her mum immediately called the local emergency services and called out to neighbours for help, but nobody heard her, according to the news outlet. So, she waited for what must have felt like a million years.

She told TVNZ, she tried to dislodge the hair clip, but to no avail and it hadn’t budged by the time paramedics arrived. Even after their arrival, it still took a considerable amount of work to get the hair clip out of Charli’s throat.

Paramedics had to use a suction cup device to remove the object, according to TVNZ, which was finally out of her throat in the back of the ambulance, just moments away from the hospital.

She is sharing her story with other parents because she wants people to learn from her terrifying experience.

Such a horrible thing to endure. You don’t always consider these little things can be such a danger to children.

Read more: This alarming x-ray shows how important it is for parents to be vigilant about food even as your children get older.

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