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Florida waitress saves choking customer

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Posted at 9:31 AM, Mar 08, 2019
and last updated 2019-03-08 09:31:01-05

GRANT-VALKARIA, Fla.---A lifesaving move was caught on camera at a restaurant in Grant-Valkaria, Florida.

"One of my tables started screaming, 'Tara help! Tara help!' and I could see that the person she was with couldn't, just stopped breathing," waitress Tara Swiderski says.

During the Sunday afternoon lunch rush at Rib City, a customer started choking. Swiderski jumped into action.

"I didn't think about it. I didn't think about it when it was happening, when I was doing it, I just wanted her to stop choking and start breathing," Swiderski says.

Swiderski was trained in the Heimlich maneuver during her years as a flight attendant and again when she started working at Rib City.

On the store surveillance video you can see Swiderski calmly and consistently working to clear the obstruction. After several attempts, the woman starts to cough and other medically-trained Rib City staff members help to calm her down.

The woman in the video did not want to be identified, but Rib City staff members say she is expected to be okay. Now Rib City is working to schedule another training session for more staff members to learn these life-saving skills.

Read more: http://bit.ly/2NMA8Go