When I was on my way home from work on Friday there was a truck stopped two cars ahead of me and when I was slowing to stop I saw a woman was kneeling outside the driver’s side choking and a man ran up to give her heimlich maneuver and so I parked my car in place and ran up to help.

Someone was calling 911 already and I told the guy giving the heimlich maneuver that I know first aid and can help he said he was okay and asked me to help keep the choking woman calm so I just touched her shoulder gently and was speaking in a calm voice to her reassuring her that she was doing good and to just keep breathing. Soon she got her breath back. It turns out she was choking on a pill that went down wrong and so she was okay. She and the guy and a woman who may have been her mother sat on the curb, while the other woman kept 911 on the line just in case paramedics were needed and I stood by the truck keeping an eye on their infant baby who was coming in and out of sleep in the back seat.

In a few minutes the woman was talking again and seemed she would be okay. We all went back to our cars and went on our way. It reminded me that I really love that kind of work and in another life would love being a paramedic. Anyway, it was good it turned out fine. Would have been a very different story if she had have died. But luckily with two first aiders on the scene and a lot of people nearby to help everything turned out fine.