Proctor Saves Choking Girl with Heimlich Maneuver
By James Ramage, Staff Writer
APPLE VALLEY - The girl didn't think the lemon drop she was choking on was ever going to come out.
A simple attempt to answer a friend's question while she had a piece of candy in her mouth led to choking, and a frightening inability to breathe.
She later told her mother she thought she'd never see her again.
But a school security proctor monitoring the lunchroom at the Lewis Center for Educational Research acted quickly and saved Dianna Addeman's 11-year-old daughter.
Character Development Officer Salvador "Sal" Sevilla was in the right place at the right time on Aug. 5.
"I was thinking about what could have happened if he weren't there or weren't prepared," Addeman said. "He came running toward her and just knew what to do."
The girl remembers eating lunch that day with two friends. One of them got an ice cream dessert with a lemon drop on it that Addeman's daughter agreed to eat, she said.
As she put it in her mouth, another friend asked her for the time, she said.
"I told her and started choking on the lemon candy," the girl said.
Sevilla said two girls ran up to him and told him a girl was choking. As he ran to the place where they directed him, he noticed the girl struggling, he said.
Addeman's daughter said she was "really, really scared" while she was choking.
Sevilla said the girl saw him coming, turned around and raised her arms.
"She recognized what was happening and knew she needed the Heimlich maneuver," Sevilla said.
The candy popped out with two thrusts, Sevilla said.
"I've been a police officer for 28 years, and this is the first time I've had to use the Heimlich maneuver on anyone," Sevilla said.
James Ramage can be reached at james_ramage@link.freedom.com or 951-6242.
Used with permission by the Daily Press, Freedom Communication, 2004