Calif. Captain Performs Heimlich at Awards Ceremony

A crisis at an event saluting Ventura's Firefighter of the Year gave the audience a firsthand look at his lifesaving skills.

Capt. Ben Davis was being honored Friday at the Ventura Kiwanis Fire Services and Heroes Celebration when he performed the Heimlich maneuver on a man choking on medication, officials said.

The crisis began after Ventura Mayor Mike Tracy noticed a man sitting next to him was taking medication that consisted of several large tablets, Tracy said.

About 6:40 p.m., Tracy noticed the man stopped what he was doing and looked straight ahead without saying a word. In the span of a minute, Tracy asked the man about three times if he was OK. Finally, the man shook his head no, Tracy said.

That's when Tracy looked around for help and noticed Davis.

"He was a couple of tables over," Tracy said, adding, "I knew he was there."

Tracy said he knew how to perform the Heimlich maneuver but thought to himself, "We've got professionals here. Let's get them over here."

Tracy said he whistled toward Davis to catch his attention, then called him over to the choking man.

"The mayor actually saw it happen because he was sitting right there, and he motioned for me and said, 'Hey, Ben!' So I ran over there and started doing the Heimlich, and he coughed the pill up," Davis said.

"He had tried to take a pill, like an antacid, and he just choked on it."

About a dozen uniformed firefighters surrounded Davis as he lifted the man from behind, performing the maneuver. The man's airway was cleared after several abdominal thrusts, officials said.

At that point, Tracy said, an ambulance had been called and the man was taken outside to have his vital signs checked by paramedics. The man, who Tracy said requested to not be named, later returned to the ceremony.

The ceremony was held at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel. It honors fire service personnel for "meritorious service and good Samaritan citizens for heroic actions," according to a city news release.

There were other firefighters at the ceremony, Tracy said, but the first name that came to him was Davis'.

It was just a coincidence that he also happened to be an honoree at the event, Tracy said.

When someone commented that Davis had performed the potentially lifesaving action on the night he was to receive the award, he just shrugged.

"It's what I'm trained to do as a firefighter," he said. "Any one of the firefighters in the room would have done the same thing."

Copyright 2012 - Ventura County Star, Calif.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service