Some teachers are called lifesavers, but Maria Norman has actually done it.
She’s been teaching for 30 years, 15 of which have been as a third grade teacher at Chimney Lakes Elementary School. But she recently did something she’s never experienced before in all of her time as an educator: saving the life of one of her students.
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“I’m grateful to God that He gave me the right thing to do at the right time,” said Norman, who quickly helped one of her third-grade students after realizing he was choking on a bottle cap.
Norman said it happened earlier this month as she was walking her class to recess. We aren’t sharing the identity of the student, because of his age, but Norman said it started when she first went to check on him because she heard him coughing after drinking from a water bottle.
“I walked up and just started tapping him on the back because I thought water went down the wrong tube,” Norman said.
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But after a few taps on the back, he didn’t stop. Norman then remembered her personal CPR and Heimlich maneuver training she had done, on her own, a few years ago.
“It was like I couldn’t hear anything else. I was just in the moment and focused on what I’m doing and what’s next,” Norman said.
She immediately started trying to help him cough up whatever he was choking on.
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“He kinda bent forward, trying to throw up, and I wrapped my arms around him, grabbed him pretty tight, gave him a few pumps, and quite a bit of water came out,” Norman said.
She thought this had been the end of it, at first feeling some relief. But then, once she heard nothing at all, her urge to act became loudest.
“I thought that was it. I thought we cleared it, and then, nothing. He went limp. He went pale, the look on his face, there was no sound, just no sound,” Norman said. “I just kept going and the [bottle] cap popped out after the third time.”
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This is the moment Norman found out her student had tucked a bottle cap in his cheek as he was drinking water, not knowing it had gone down his throat with some of the water he’d swallowed.
In a recent study, the National Library of Medicine said up to 77 kids in the U.S. die from choking every year. The study said most of those children are younger than 10 years old.
Florida does not require teachers to have CPR training, but the state of Georgia does. Both states, however, do require some form of CPR training for high school students to be able to graduate.
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Norman said the student ended up coming back to school the next day, with a handwritten letter expressing his thanks, along with one his parents had written.
The letter reads, in part:
“Thank you Ms. Norman for everything you did for me that day. I love you so much and thank you for worrying about me. You are so special for saving my life.”
“I think he’ll always have a little piece of my heart, forever. I was just very glad that I was able to help and be there,” Norman said.
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