Daycare teachers save boy's life after seizure



KENOSHA -- The mother of a nine-month-old Kenosha boy is hugging him a little tighter after something happened to him at daycare that teachers say they've never seen before. He started choking and then, things got worse.

While playing with his friends Thursday, nine-month-old Steven Matrise showed no signs of his recent emergency - an ordeal that seems to have affected his teachers more than the infant. "I was petrified. The thought of him not coming back came across my mind," Almost Home Academy teacher Rachael Hahnfeldt said.

As Steven sipped a bottle last Friday at the Almost Home Academy in Kenosha, his teachers noticed he was acting odd. "His eyes were rolled back and his arm was very limp, and his bottle was just kind of cocked to the side," Hahnfeldt said. "I called his name like, three times, but he wasn't responding," Loyda Ortiz said.

Hahnfeldt and Ortiz realized the infant had stopped breathing. "Right away, I picked him up and gave him to Rachael and said 'start CPR on him,' and I ran to the office," Ortiz said. "I just kind of flipped him over, checked his mouth and airways first - nothing in there. I started patting his back," Hahnfeldt said.

Steven's mom, Rachel Matrise, is a Pre-K teacher in the same building. "Another teacher had run in and she just yelled 'there's something wrong with your son!' I just ran, and apparently I screamed as I was running down the hall 'what's wrong with my baby?'" Matrise said.

By the time mom ran in and first responders had arrived, Hahnfeldt had gotten Steven breathing again. "We got there and it was pretty much already resolved by the time we got there. This was the best outcome, really," Kenosha Fire Lt. Neil Flannery said.

Doctors say Steven had a fibril seizure, caused by a temperature of nearly 104 degrees! "Couldn't be more thankful for his teachers. I owe them everything," Matrise said.

"I'm very, very happy. You love these kids like they're your own," Ortiz said.

Steven was taken to the hospital as a precaution and doctors say the seizure is probably an isolated incident. His mom says Steven slept a lot in the days after the seizure, which is normal, and otherwise, he's fine.