Yikes. I️ was 6 when this happened. For context beforehand, I️ was home alone with my mother for the time being. We had a computer in the kitchen.

I was a normal kid, I loved me my chicken nuggets you know? So, my amazing mother, who I️ had to pry off of her computer (probably chatting up some guys on MySpace) popped some nuggies in the oven.

The time passes, oven beeps, she doesn’t hear it since she has music blaring through her head phones. Poked at her, annoyed her to feed. She finally got up and pulled the pan out and set it on the counter. “Eat.” she told me.

She immediately sat back down and faced her computer, headphones back on. Not facing me. But hey, chicken nuggets! I loved them. They were the dinosaur shaped ones also, mega awesome! So, I grabbed one and well I bit into it. Let me tell you, it was blazing hot. Made my fingers red it was so hot, mega hot. The temperature of that bite immediately hurt my teeth, naturally I gasped because, ouch.

Well, when I did that, I inhaled that hot nugget and it got lodged into my throat. At this point I’m choking on a hot chicken nugget, my throat already blistering. My mother can not hear me nor can she see me, too into whatever she was up to. I️ don’t know why I didn’t reach to touch her, I was bent forward with my hands at my neck, in my young mind I really thought I was going to die.

Like a Christmas miracle, my grandparents get home and my grandpa could hear me making unpleasant choking sounds, he enters the kitchen and immediately does the Heimlich maneuver on me. The chicken nugget comes up and plops itself on the floor.

My mom was STILL unaware of what was happening. My grandpa ended up just spinning her chair around. Lo and behold she didn’t understand what the deal was and why her kid was crying on the floor.

A few minutes later, they have me sat down drinking milk. That almost hurt just as bad as choking on that peace of coal smh. She exclaimed that I should’ve been smart enough not to eat it because it was hot and straight from the oven. Well, yeah I agree, but my common sense didn’t kick in that early. In my defense, she told me to eat and she probably should’ve payed a bit more attention to me.

Went to the E.R., second degree burns on my tongue and the back of my throat. I had to gargle this medication that I do not know the name of for a few weeks that had the possibility of inducing a stroke if I swallowed it, that scared the crap out of little me. I didn’t know what a stroke was but it didn’t sound like a good time.

Thanks mom. Love you.