This particular situation occurred at a local nursing home I was employed by, in the summer of 2009. It was 11:30 am on a Tuesday in July. One of my duties was to serve lunch to the occupants of the nursing home. As I would deliver the food, I very much enjoyed talking and spending time with the residents.

I was making my rounds delivering their food and having short but meaningful conversations with the tenants. I then arrived to deliver food to a gentleman who I’ll call Murray. I gave him his food and began talking with him. He was enjoying his food, and telling me stories when all of the sudden, he stopped in the middle of a sentence. Something was wrong. Murray was choking on his food.

Unfortunately, at the time, I was not trained or prepared to handle a choking victim of Murray’s age. I paged a nurse and she got there immediately to alleviate the situation. She acted in a timely and professional manner, using the Heimlich maneuver, and soon Murray was ok.

During this situation, my concerns were that it would take too long for someone to get to the room to help Murray. I was concerned that Murray would be without air for too long and could possibly suffer any number of consequences such as brain damage or even death. I felt helpless because as much as I wanted to help him, I was unable and unqualified.

The most rewarding thing about the situation was being able to see the relief on the face of Murray, and of the nurse. The most frustrating thing was having to watch Murray suffer, and hope and pray that someone would be able to act quickly enough to help him. Fortunately, Murray is ok, and I hope that I’ll be able to do more in the future, should anything like this ever happen again.