More than pipes and wires

Back when I was “footloose and fancy free” a coworker’s wife thought one of her coworkers and I would be a perfect match.  So a double date was arranged with dinner and theatre on tap.  Bruce and I arrived at the restaurant well ahead of the fashionably late ladies, so we sat in a booth and enjoyed fine glasses of water while we waited for our companions.

Suddenly, we hear the panicked voice of a woman yelling “Somebody call the Fire Department! He’s choking!” I looked around and sure enough there’s her husband, turning several unattractive shades of blue and grasping his neck.

I think I mumbled “Excuse me” to Bruce, stood up and walked over to their table.  As a former Emergency Medical Technician from my days in California, I had learned and practiced the Heimlich Maneuver on fellow EMTs, but never actually used it.

I put my hand on his shoulder and in my best reassuring professional voice asked “Can you talk to me?” His expression was classic. Shaking his head in the negative, he all but screamed silently, “No, you dumbs**t. Can’t you see I’m choking to death?”

He glanced around the restaurant hoping perhaps someone with better patient management skills might volunteer. No, he was stuck with me.

When he shook his head “no”, I knew he had an airway obstruction and wasn’t evidencing a heart attack instead (1). While he was seated, I struck him hard in the middle of his back several times, to no avail. So I swept him out of the booth, stood him up and applied two swift abdominal thrusts. And out popped the offending piece of food.

Seeing that he was recovering, I went back to my now wide-eyed dinner companion and suggested we not mention the event to the ladies.  A few minutes later they arrived and our evening officially began.

I write this story to illustrate a point about work practices:

By taking just a moment to assess any situation before leaping in blindly, you can improve the chances of success considerably. Situational awareness is always key. And a moment to assess is always in order.

The date didn’t work out: she and Bruce spent most of dinner discussing “Ren and Stimpy” cartoons and something called “nose goblins.”

1. Café Coronary: a fatal choking condition brought on when food, dentures, etc. lodge in a person's throat while he or she is eating: it is often misinterpreted as a heart attack. (Collins Dictionary)