On Friday, heartbroken friends and family gathered for the funeral of Noelia Echavarria, the 7-year-old girl who died after choking on her food while she was at school.
On October 21, the first grader was found in the hallway at Public School 250 in Williamsburg, and although she was kept on life support for 10 days at NYU Langone Medical Center, she passed away.
Her family is now suing the school for $25 million, because they believe the school did not keep a close enough eye on their little girl.
“That was my baby girl,” said her mother, Ana Santiago. “The school took her away from me. Somebody should’ve been watching my baby.”
“I don’t know how I’m going to live without her,” she added.
The family said that the school staff failed to react when they found the girl lying prone on the floor of the hallway and that no one gave her CPR or tried to use the Heimlich maneuver.
An EMT who happened to drive by the school in his ambulance was the only one to act, clearing her airway and administering CPR once he had been asked into the school by staffers. However, Qwasie Reid, the EMT, said that he found her in a corridor where no other adults could be seen.
