Hero honored after saving young girl from choking

Adriana Sanchez has been honored as a hero by the La Quinta City Council.

This summer Sanchez was having dinner with her husband and her children at the Panda Express in La Quinta when something unexpected happened.

“A little boy just started yelling that his sister was choking,” said Sanchez.

A 10-year-old girl was choking. Her brother, also a young child, didn’t know what to do. The children were with their grandmother who was in the restroom. But Sanchez was right there and she was trained and prepared.

“I have been CPR trained for more than 15 years because of my career and I always wondered if I would know what to do in a situation like this, but without thinking I just reacted, said Sanchez who is a teacher at Coachella Valley High School.

The girl was taken to the hospital as a precaution but was OK.

Knowing CPR and the Heimlich maneuver can help save a life by buying time until emergency workers can get to a situation. It’s those immediate few minutes that can be so critical when someone can’t breathe.

“Saving lives is something that we always recognize law enforcement and our firefighters for, so when you have a regular resident just instinctively rise to the occasion that’s heroic,” said Linda Evans, mayor of La Quinta.

The American Heart Association estimates that more than 70 percent of the country doesn’t know or has forgotten how to properly give CPR or use other lifesaving measures.

The success rate for saving someone who is choking on food with the Heimlich maneuver is 98 percent.

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