Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.It was a Tuesday evening in January. Two women were dining at Firebirds Wood Fired Grill at Village Pointe shopping center when one of them started to choke.
In less than 30 seconds, 18-year-old Abbey Hugo, who works as a hostess at the restaurant, crossed the room, performed the Heimlich maneuver and saved the woman's life.
"I wasn't nervous or anything," said the Millard North High School senior. "I just wanted to help that lady."
Shocked but relieved, the woman returned to her dinner, and Hugo returned to the hostess stand. She was a little shocked, too.
"I've heard those stories," said Hugo, who never learned the woman's name. "I never thought that I would actually be that person."
But fortunately, the Heimlich was fresh in her mind. Though she had been taught the manuever once before, she and her classmates mastered it at the Millard Public Schools Health Sciences Career Academy just a week before the incident.
Jerry Olson, a teacher with the health academy, which prepares select students for careers in the profession, said he wasn't surprised that Hugo stepped in to help.
"We tell the students, 'You need to be that person that takes immediate action,' " he said. "I was very proud of her. She went right to it and saved the woman. That's fantastic."
Hugo plans to study nursing at Iowa Western Community College after graduation.
The choking incident reaffirmed her decision to work in the health field, she said.
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