Teacher, student team up to save choking victim

Instinct and training took over for student Matt Vettraino and teacher Rod Windle when another student began choking during a sophomore English class at Churchill High School one afternoon last week.

Nicholas Thrushman, who had accidentally swallowed a plastic bottle cap that blocked his airway, suddenly stood up and headed toward the classroom recycling bin.

"I just kind of knew," Matt said later, recalling the incident. He and Nicholas have been friends since the fifth grade.

Matt, who had learned the Heimlich maneuver in a seventh-grade health class at Frost Middle School, also stood up and began performing the lifesaving abdominal thrusts.

"Matt kind of started the effort," said Windle, who took over.

Matt may have dislodged the cap and three more abdominal thrusts did the trick, Windle said. The cap was back in Nicholas's mouth and he was able to spit it out.

"I was scared at first" with concern for his friend and for the severity of the situation, Matt said. "I was just shaking."

It all happened very fast, the two said, and when things calmed down, the class went back to its discussion of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby."

Nicholas declined to be interviewed for this story.

"I've never had a critical emergency like that" in the classroom, said Windle, who knew the Heimlich from his training as an athletics coach at another school. "It's a rarity, but I'm glad I was able to help."

Windle, however, had previously saved a choking victim, his son Thomas, when Thomas was just 2 and choked on a piece of a hot dog during a softball game. Thomas Windle is now 24 and his father is in his 22nd year at Churchill.

Matt had previously seen the Heimlich performed at a restaurant.

“I think everyone should learn how to do the Heimlich maneuver," he said.

mjachman@hometownlife.com

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Twitter: @mattjachman