Picture from Provo School District
PROVO, UTAH — Two Provo School District employees say they are not heroes; they were just in the right place at the right time when they saved a woman who was choking this week at lunch.
Tina Fluehe and Juliana Marsh were eating lunch at Molly’s in Provo on Tuesday, when they saw an older woman nearby in distress.
“I looked over, and I said, I think she’s choking,” said Marsh.
Marsh jumped up and started doing the Heimlich Manuever. It seemed to work at first, but the woman could still not breathe fully. So Fluehe says she did it so hard it about took the taller woman off her feet. But it dislodged the rest of the food and the woman could breathe again.
They got her some water and helped her calm down. They hugged several times, and eventually went their separate ways but never got her name.
Marsh says she was talking to her daughter about it afterward as she tried to process what happened.
“My daughter is a 911 dispatcher, and I told her you know, people are making a big deal out of it, I don’t feel like a hero or anything. But she said, ‘Mom, this just shows that having a little bit of training, you are able to help somebody,’” said Marsh.
Fluehe says she has been bothered ever since that no one else in the restaurant did anything.
“If this was to happen to me, would someone jump into action and do this? People need to get involved, they need to scream ‘Call 911,’ or, ‘Help, she’s choking, can anybody help?’” said Fluehe.
The Provo School District tweeted about the women afterward.
Fluehe is the Purchasing Director and Marsh is the Business Office Administrative Assistant for the district. They joke that at around 5 feet tall, they are the smallest women in the office. But if they could do the Heimlich, anyone can.
“Jump up and help, no matter what,” said Fluehe.
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