Choking victim saved as hero neighbor springs into action
Raw video: Lifesaving rescue performed by quick thinking neighbor in Florida. (Courtesy of Karen Aranda)
An Orlando steak dinner for one could have been a Florida man's last meal without help from a quick-thinking neighbor this week.
Karen Aranda's doorbell camera recorded the moment when her choking neighbor ran up to her front door seeking help – and her flawless Heimlich maneuver.
“You saved my life,” neighbor Billy Bass says in the video after catching his breath -- right before the two share a hug.
Bass, a middle school gym teacher, was choking on a piece of steak, according to a local report.
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“I was gonna die,” Bass told WESH 2. “I had no breath. I couldn’t speak. I had nothing going on.”
So he ran across the street barefoot and knocked on his neighbor’s door. The video showed him struggling for air for about 20 seconds before the door opened and he signaled that something was struck in his throat.
“You’re choking?” Aranda asked – before spinning Bass around and beginning the Heimlich – without waiting for an answer.
She cleared his airway almost immediately.
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“Did it come out?” she asked.
“Yea it came out,” a second male said in the video.
Aranda shouted into the house for someone to call 911, but Bass, having regained his breath and his voice, said he was OK.
“I can breathe now,” he said. “I could not breathe.”
Someone else from inside the house comes out with a bottle of water for the teacher, who regains his breath and thanks his neighbors.
Watch the video above.
