Caught on camera: Restaurant server saves choking customer
EMPORIA, Virginia -- A quick-thinking restaurant server saved her customer's life, and the heroics were all caught on camera.
A man named Craig was enjoying a bowl of chicken penne pasta when something got caught in his throat.
In the video, you can see Craig panic when he realizes he can't breathe. Within seconds, his server rushes to help.
"I asked him was he OK, and he couldn't reply," Money Blassingame told WRIC-TV. "So I immediately grabbed hold of him and started to do the Heimlich maneuver."
Blassingame is known to customers as 'Ms. Money.' What she did on Thursday afternoon really paid off.
"I was trying to get him to stand up but he couldn't get up, so I eventually got him up out of the chair. The first round we thought we had it, but we really didn't," Blassingame recalled.
So she tried the Heimlich maneuver for a second time and finally dislodged a piece of chicken from her choking patron.
"He was very shaken," Blassingame said. "I think we'll be forever connected as a result of this and I'm always going to be concerned about him from this point on."
On social media, Craig called his hero "incredible" and said he can't begin to thank her enough for saving his life.
As it happens, Blassingame once studied to be a nurse. She says those instincts just kicked in when she saw Craig in distress.
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