A Hallsville, Missouri teacher is being hailed a hero after she saved her former student’s life when she noticed he was choking.
Betsy Berry, a science teacher at Hallsville Middle School, was teaching her sixth grade class when she heard an unfamiliar sound outside her classroom door.
“I heard a noise in the hallway and I said, ‘that doesn’t sound right,’” Berry told KRCG News.
That’s when she noticed her former student, Gage Donner, in the hallway choking on a piece of candy.
“I said ‘Gage, are you choking?’ And he indicated to me he was and he was getting light in [his face],” Berry said. “He was purple everywhere else and his eyes were bulging.”
That’s when Berry went into action and preformed the Heimlich maneuver on the eighth grader, and it was all caught on the school’s surveillance camera.
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“I didn’t think, I just reacted.”
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She went on to say that she didn’t realize what an impact her quick actions had on Gage’s family.
“It didn’t hit me until Gage’s little sister wrapped her arms around my legs and looked up at me and said, ‘thank you for saving my brother,’” told Berry to KRCG.
Berry has been honoured with the Hometown Hero Award by the Hallsville Chamber of Commerce, which she will receive in December.
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