Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider walks through the training facility during baseball spring practice in Dunedin, Fla. February 18.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
In baseball, it’s usually the closer one that makes the save. In this case it was the manager who did the work.
Blue Jays skipper John Schneider recently helped a woman who was choking at a local restaurant by successfully using the Heimlich maneuver to remove a shrimp that was blocking her airflow.
“Right place, right time,” said Schneider on Sunday. “I’ve just enjoyed lunch [my wife] Jess. You either help or you don’t and I decided I would go and see if I could help.”
The incident happened about two weeks ago at a facility on the town’s main street, about two miles from the Blue Jays’ player development complex.
Others at the woman’s table were slow to respond, Schneider said, so he asked if he could help. Then the 43-year-old thought back to the first-aid training from his youth.
“I learned it in sixth grade and haven’t done it since,” he said of the procedure, which involves applying intense pressure to the abdomen.
“So it was just, ‘I think I remember how to do that.’ I’m a bigger guy, so I think that helped a bit.”
The 6-foot-3, 250-pound skipper, who is entering his first full season as Blue Jays manager, said the woman did not recognize him.
“She said ‘thank you,’ and continued her meal with her friends,” Schneider said. “I think I was a little more disturbed than her.”
A complimentary beer helped calm his nerves.
As for the released shrimp, Schneider said their departure was “not like a movie.”
“It just came naturally, I think,” he said. “But it wasn’t like popping a bottle of champagne.”
Source: www.theglobeandmail.com
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