Toddler’s penny dreadful as he survives choking

Harry Pattinson nearly choked to death when he picked up the 1p coin from the carpet and popped it into his mouth.

The 15 month-old toddler started to retch and cough, and his mother, Lesley, called the emergency services, but decided to drive Harry to hospital herself after being told there was no ambulance near their home outside Whitby.

The mother-of-four took her son to Whitby Hospital where an X-ray showed the coin lodged in his oesophagus.

However, doctors said Harry was too young for them to perform emergency surgery and he needed specialist treatment.

He was transferred to the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough where the penny was successfully removed – and handed back to his mother.

Dubbed “Harry’s Lucky Coin”, it is now set to be framed together with the X-ray as a memento of the youngster’s near-miss.

His mother said: “We are going to keep the coin for his memory box, because we are never going to let him forget this.

“What happened was every mother’s worst nightmare – it was horrendous.

“He was retching and crying, but I stayed calm and it never once crossed my mind that I was going to lose him. I didn’t even consider it might happen.

“You keep calm and just go into robot mode to save your child.”