ER Physician Choked on Sandwich During Lunch. Cafeteria Cashier Saved Her Life with Heimlich Maneuver
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NEED TO KNOW
- A cafeteria employee leapt into action when she saw an ER doctor choking during her lunch break
- California’s Loyola University Medical Center held a ceremony where Dr. Joan Dimopoulos thanked Keztly Angel for her heroic action
- “She had the courage to help me,” the doctor said
A California cashier is receiving flowers after quick thinking helped her save an emergency room physician from choking.
On Monday, Sept. 22, Dr. Joan Dimopoulos presented Keztly Angel with flowers as a token of her appreciation during a special ceremony to recognize the Loyola University Medical Center cafeteria cashier who saved Dimopoulos during her lunch break, WGN-TV reported.
Dimopoulos had been eating a chicken sandwich when a portion became lodged in her throat.
Angel noticed the doctor was struggling and sprang into action, performing the Heimlich maneuver on Dimopoulos after the young employee learned the life-saving technique as a student at Proviso East High School in Maywood, Ill.
It was her first time doing so.
“I really wanted to say thank you to Keztly. I had a very scary event in our cafeteria. I couldn’t breathe, and she recognized that I gave the universal choking sign. She had the courage to help me,” Dimopoulos said.
She also embraced Angel, adding, “I’m just so grateful that you were there, and that you had the awareness and the knowledge and the courage to act.”
The hospital employee recalled her thoughts in the seconds surrounding the ordeal.
“I made sure I got out of my seat and started doing something, because I seen everybody else was just looking at her,” Angel said, per CBS News Chicago.
“There were a lot of people around, but she’s the one who jumped up and helped me right away, and I don’t know what would of happened if she didn’t,” Dimopoulous, who studied at the Indiana University School of Medicine, said.
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The doctor continued, “Her knowledge of knowing what to do and then the courage to really do it for somebody that you don’t know, and that she did that for me, and I just want to tell her thank you.”
Angel’s heroic moment came just as she was celebrating her first anniversary as an employee at the Loyola University Medical Center, according to WGN-TV.
“I love it here,” she said. “The team is amazing, and it’s a great environment to work in.”
Credit to Nypost AND Peoples
