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Greenfield honors heroes who saved choking woman

Posted at 10:01 PM, Jun 08, 2016
and last updated 2016-06-08 23:24:16-04

Three strangers share a heroic bond, after saving a woman who nearly died while eating breakfast. The three all happened to be at the right place at the right time.

They were honored Wednesday afternoon by the Greenfield Fire Department.

A woman stopping for breakfast at McDonald's June 4 almost lost her life choking on a breakfast burrito. Greenfield Fire Crews say the food got caught in her throat while she was riding in a car. She got out and her family started yelling for help.

"I was at the McDonald's on a routine call," says Brian Tabbert of We Energies, "And heard some screaming and commotion in the street."

Tabbert is a first responder for We Engeries and just happened to be in the parking lot.

"I took my company truck and used it to block traffic and as I pulled up she had fallen over," Tabbert says.

Tabbert not only has first aid training from working at We Energies, one of his first jobs was a volunteer fire fighter in St. Francis. He did the Heimlich on the woman then realized she wasn't breathing, so started CPR.  At the same time, two nurses happened to be driving by.  One was just getting off her shift at St. Luke's where she works in the Neuro-ICU, when she saw a woman lying in the median, Tabbert was standing over her.

"He was doing compressions so I ran over and checked for a pulse," says Anna Campion.

It took just 18 chest compressions and the woman was revived.  Fire crews say because it took them several minutes to respond, the good samaritans likely saved the woman’s life.

"We taught a generation to call 911 now we need to focus on teaching the current generation to do something while they are waiting for help to arrive," says Chief Jon Cohn, Greenfield Fire Department.

The other nurse could not attend the ceremony or the woman rescued. The fire department applauded them all for their bravery and quick-thinking.