Michael Gingras, a 15-year-old sophomore at Victor J. Andrew High School in Tinley Park, learned the Heimlich maneuver during a short lesson in gym class a year ago.
Two weeks ago, on Dec. 19, that knowledge came in handy when Gingras' younger brother's eighth-grader friend began choking while eating chicken nuggets at their home.
“There was a look of panic on his face,” said Ashley McCaig, Gingras' mother. “So I went after him and did what I thought was a Heimlich and I kind of put pressure on his diaphragm. And I'm pretty sure my hand was positioned correctly, it was the right position on him, but I was too nervous to use any real force because he's so much smaller than me.”
Because she was afraid of hurting him, she was unable to clear her throat, she said.
It was at this point that Gingras, who had been called away from playing Fortnite to eat, intervened.
“Thank God he came up,” McCaig said. “He came upstairs and said, 'Mom, I know how to do this, get out of the way.'
“She didn’t even do it,” Gingras said. “I hugged him tightly.”
Gingras successfully performed the Heimlich maneuver, eliminating an interfering chicken nugget in one attempt.
“I’d like to think that if Mikey wasn’t here, I would have used more force,” McCaig said. “But that's not how it happened. It happened like this: Mikey came and saved him.”
After that, McCaig said, she and her youngest son, Christian Gingras, were left worried.
“When they left, I was sitting here with my youngest son, who was his friend,” McCaig said. “He was like, 'Mom, are you scared?' And I'm like, no, I think the feeling you're thinking of is anxiety because we know he's okay so there's nothing to be afraid of, but we both felt so uneasy.”
The lesson in which Gringas learned to perform the Heimlich maneuver last year was simple and short, he said.
“They made us watch a video and answer a couple of questions,” Gingras said. “That's it.”
McCaig wrote to Victor J. Andrew urging them to continue training in the maneuver.
“This incident truly could have been tragic, but thanks to whoever taught it last year, it was not,” McCaig wrote to the school.
The school's principal, Abir Othman, responded by writing that it was important to hear that the training helped save a life.
“Moments like these remind us why teaching life-saving skills is so important,” Othman wrote. “I will share your email with our physical education department so they can be recognized and praised for the important work they do with our students.”
Many schools provide training in the Heimlich maneuver, but not all.
“I just think I didn’t want to do it too much!” McCaig told her, but Mikey told her, “Wouldn't you rather break his rib and save his life?”
The boy who choked was fine, although he had a sore throat for several days, Gingras and McCaig said.
“The kid's mother made me a scarf, and he and his brother came and gave it to me, which was really sweet,” Gingras said.
