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Grandpa, I’ll save mom
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The family vacations together every year.
The sisters, their kids and husbands. Dozens of them. It’s a gift from dad.
In the past, they’ve traveled to the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas and Mexico. This year, they returned to Mexico, spending five days in Playa del Carmen, a former fishing village turned beach town. For six days, they stayed in an all-inclusive resort that offered stellar amenities.
Snellville’s Colleen Bosworth fell in love with the guacamole. It was always fresh and chunky.
“I ate it at every meal,” she told me.
On day No. 3 of the vacation, a Tuesday, lunch would be no exception. She indulged in some chips and dip. That day she shared a table with her father, Hank Hudson, and her sons. Michael and Zachary are 12-year-old identical twins. The boys love sports. They play in a south Gwinnett football league. At home, they play hockey and baseball.
“They’re sports nuts,” Bosworth told me.
So it stands to reason that they both enjoyed P.E. at Snellville’s Britt Elementary School. Jim Moore, the physical education instructor, was one of their favorite teachers. They were his “gym helpers” in fifth grade. That’s the year Moore taught students how to perform the Heimlich maneuver.
“We practiced it in class,” said Michael, a rising seventh-grader.
In Mexico, practice proved worthy.
During lunch that Tuesday, an object lodged in Bosworth’s throat while she ate guacamole. She coughed and coughed to dislodge it. No avail. It only traveled further down her airway.
Panic hit.
“I couldn’t breathe at all,” she told me. “A gentleman at the closest table got up and brought napkins. All I can think of is that he thought I was going to puke. I was bent over, facing the floor.”
Zachary didn’t see what was happening. He was at the buffet. Bosworth’s father, Hudson, seated next to her, pushed his chair back to try and help. Too late. Michael shot past his grandpa and straight to his mother.
He wrapped his arms around her waist. He made a fist and gave her upper abdomen a quick upward thrust. Nothing. He pressed one more time, this time more aggressively. Out popped a jagged piece of chip, the size of a nickel.
“I had just gotten up and walked out of the restaurant,” said Colleen’s sister, Barbara Mock of Dacula. “[Colleen] came over, crying. She was very, very close to being gone. It’s pretty amazing to hear that your 12-year-old nephew was the one who saved her. I’m not sure I would have had the composure to do it.”
Neither would I.
As the ordeal that took place a week or so ago unfolded, Michael assured his grandpa that he would save his mom. What a calm, quick thinker.
“She was kind of coughing a lot,” he told me, “and she was wheezing. “I just got up and did the Heimlich maneuver. First, I was thinking she might die. Then I did it a little harder and the chip came out of her mouth and onto the napkin.”
Naturally, Bosworth considers Michael a hero.
Wouldn’t you?
“I gave him so many hugs,” the accountant said. “I told him he was my hero and that he had saved my life. It was very scary. I was very scared. The thought of what could have happened makes me cry.”
The ordeal left Bosworth with a sore throat. She didn’t eat a thing the rest of the day. She recovered just fine, though. Fine enough to resume eating guacamole (and other dishes, of course) the rest of the trip.
She just did a better job chewing.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com
Permalink | Comments (8) | Post your comment | Categories: Rick Badie
Comments
By Cindy
June 28, 2008 6:45 PM | Link to this
Great story.
By Darla
June 28, 2008 7:09 PM | Link to this
Great kid so calm under pressure! Mr. Moore is a great teacher at Britt too!
By Bruce Wilcox
June 28, 2008 7:20 PM | Link to this
The Heimlich maneuver and CPR, two life saving techniques that are easy to learn. The Red Cross and other organizations offer courses, I wish everyone would learn them, but as Mr. Badie pointed out, knowing them and keeping your cool to put them in use are two different things.
By LT5000
June 29, 2008 8:48 PM | Link to this
I should point out that if you are coughing and wheezing you are still breathing.
Another Badie Bilge blog. Certainly around the July 4th holiday he could write something a little more salient.
I realize being the hack that he is there will never be a patriotic aritcle about America. But he really could do better than this tripe.
LT5000
By Katie
June 30, 2008 5:37 AM | Link to this
It’s a nice story but still a bit fluffy.
By JAMES MCCOY
June 30, 2008 12:16 PM | Link to this
Everything is fluff,particully since it’s not your butt choking!
By Katie
June 30, 2008 2:40 PM | Link to this
My Butt doesn’t choke. If yours does, might I suggest that you eat more fiber?
By frank azzalina
July 7, 2008 12:00 PM | Link to this
Next time don’t stay at an all inclusive - with such a large group rent a luxury villa - It’ll cost less and give you the freedom of eating at local restaurants!www.dolphingrouptravel.com