Ancona, July 13, 2026 – He almost died choking on a bite. A piece of undercooked boiled potato nearly cost the life of an 18-month-old child. A tragedy narrowly avoided on Saturday evening in Posatora, in Ancona, during the dinner of four Rimini families on vacation in a camper. The little boy, choked by a bite that went down the wrong way, was saved by the dislodging maneuvers performed by one of the diners, guided by instructions given over the phone by the 118 emergency center. Taken to the ’Salesi’ hospital in Ancona by volunteers from the Yellow Cross, fortunately the child recovered immediately.
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The difference for the child’s survival was made by an educator from Ancona, certified in dislodging maneuvers, who was with the Rimini couple. He immediately dialed 112 and, guided step by step by the 118 operations center, performed maneuvers on the child until the airways were cleared. “It is in those minutes that the game is played – explains to Carlino the coordinator of the 118 operations center – Because the operations center is not just the place where you call the ambulance. Besides receiving calls and dispatching help, we provide pre-arrival instructions based on what is reported by the caller. We also have a video call application, which further reduces response times. The application allows the nurse to see the scene live and correct the maneuvers as they are performed.”
A detail that, for certain emergencies, is worth a life: “With a foreign body in a child, no matter how fast the ambulance is, minutes are crucial. Thanks to our protocols, intervention is immediate.” Time, in these cases, is everything: whether it is guiding cardiac massage or stopping bleeding while waiting for the ambulance, these are maneuvers the center dictates over the phone every day. And it is the only one authorized to do so: pre-arrival instructions are the exclusive competence of health centers. The biggest obstacle, however, is rarely technical. “The greatest difficulty is to get in sync with the person we are facing – the coordinator continues – You have to calm the panicked parent and guide them precisely while they perform the life-saving maneuvers. In an emergency like this, where the margin is one minute, without their cooperation everything becomes more difficult.”
The person answering is not a simple operator. At 112, dedicated operators collect calls and forward them to the competent center, whether it is the 118 medical staff, law enforcement, or firefighters. “In health centers, specialized emergency nurses respond, selected and trained. They are the ones who assess the severity of cases, send the ambulance, and dictate, while waiting, the maneuvers that can save a life. Because rescue is a team effort.”
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