Last month, 17-year-old Tyra Winters saved the day.
Tyra, a cheerleader at Rockwall High School in Texas, joined her teammates on the homecoming float and waved to the crowd as they paraded through town. While on the float, she saw a woman holding a toddler and crying for help.
The little boy was apparently choking on a piece of candy when Tyra spotted him and his emotional mother from atop the float.
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The boy’s mother, Nicole Hornback, attempted the Heimlich maneuver, but she had never learned how to do it properly.
“And at that moment that’s when I tried to give him the Heimlich, and I’ve never taken a class. To feel so useless as a mother was the most terrifying thing in my life,” Hornback said.
Tyra saw her calling for help and jumped off the float to lend a hand. She had learned how to help children who were choking thanks to her mother who worked in the medical field. She quickly picked up the toddler, flipped him upside-down, and gave him three firm slaps on the back, which dislodged the candy.