Teacher Saves Life of Choking Student

Like all teachers, Tom Wilcox knows he touches the lives of children every day. But when he went to work at Germantown’s Rockfield Elementary School on November 5, he didn’t know he would be called on to save a life.

“I was on lunchroom duty when a boy came running up to me yelling ‘Mr. W, Mr. W, there’s an emergency.’ ” Wilcox rushed over to to find a boy hunched over, choking on a piece of turkey.

“The boy was bright red and turning colors by the second,” Wilcox said. “He had his hands around his throat, so I asked if he could breathe and he shook his head. I didn’t hear any air coming out. I got him sitting up straight, and I gave him the Heimlich.

“All I could think of was I can’t let this boy die,” he said.

The Heimlich did not work at first, so Wilcox tried again, and the boy started coughing. Wilcox kept working on him and eventually, the food became dislodged. About that time, paramedics arrived and helped the boy recover.

“The kids in the cafeteria were pretty shaken up. It was a pretty scary thing to be part of,” Wilcox said. “My legs were shaking for 24 hours afterward.”

Wilcox, a 3rd-grade teacher, said it didn’t take long for the 5th-grader to recover.

“The first thing he wanted to do when it was all over with and the paramedics left was to eat lunch,” he said.

Posted December 2, 1998