Tuesday, July 8, 2008
BALLERZ & SHOT CALLERZ: CHIEFS TE, TONY GONZALEZ SAVES A MAN'S LIFE
Posted by THE fly GIRL at 9:38 AM
A California man says Pro Bowl tight end Tony Gonzalez of the Kansas City Chiefs kept him from choking to death.
“Tony saved my life. There’s no doubt,” Ken Hunter, a shipping company manager, told The Associated Press in a phone interview from Huntington Beach, Calif.
“Tony came up behind me and gave me the Heimlich maneuver. Thank God he was there.”
Gonzalez, a nine-time Pro Bowl selection who has set numerous NFL records, was having dinner with his wife, brother and 5-week-old daughter at Capone’s restaurant in Huntington Beach Thursday night. Hunter, 45, was dining with his girlfriend at the next table when suddenly a piece of meat stuck in his throat.
“I tried to take a drink of water, but I couldn’t swallow,” Hunter told The AP. “Then I couldn’t breathe. That’s a terrible feeling. I couldn’t breathe. Then I guess I started to panic.”
Gonzalez, sitting with his back to Hunter’s table, looked around when he heard Hunter’s companion yelling.
“She was screaming, `He can’t breathe, he can’t breathe,”’ Gonzalez said by phone from California, where he lives in the offseason. “The whole restaurant was quiet. Nobody was doing anything.”
Then I saw he was turning blue. Everybody in the restaurant was just kind of sitting there wide-eyed.”
The 6-foot-5 Gonzalez, about a foot taller than Hunter, jumped out of his chair and came up behind the stricken man and began to perform the Heimlich maneuver.
“After just a few seconds, the piece of meat popped out,” Hunter said. “I could breathe again. It’s a good thing Tony is so tall because I had stood up— I think.”
Diana Martin, a restaurant employee, said no one else seemed to know what to do.
“He was so lucky Tony was there,” Martin said. “In a situation like that, every second counts. It helped a lot that Tony’s a big, strong guy because you have to be able to apply some pretty good pressure. I don’t think I would have been strong enough to help him.”
Hunter went into the restroom to clean up and didn’t realize he’d been saved by a famous athlete until he came out.
“I’m a big NFL fan and I recognized him right away. I was still kind of dazed when I went over and thanked him and said, `What can I do for you?’ I guess I said it about 1,000 times.”
Gonzalez, who has been active in charity and community activities during a brilliant career with the Chiefs, said he had no intention of having the incident become public.
“Tony saved my life. There’s no doubt,” Ken Hunter, a shipping company manager, told The Associated Press in a phone interview from Huntington Beach, Calif.
“Tony came up behind me and gave me the Heimlich maneuver. Thank God he was there.”
Gonzalez, a nine-time Pro Bowl selection who has set numerous NFL records, was having dinner with his wife, brother and 5-week-old daughter at Capone’s restaurant in Huntington Beach Thursday night. Hunter, 45, was dining with his girlfriend at the next table when suddenly a piece of meat stuck in his throat.
“I tried to take a drink of water, but I couldn’t swallow,” Hunter told The AP. “Then I couldn’t breathe. That’s a terrible feeling. I couldn’t breathe. Then I guess I started to panic.”
Gonzalez, sitting with his back to Hunter’s table, looked around when he heard Hunter’s companion yelling.
“She was screaming, `He can’t breathe, he can’t breathe,”’ Gonzalez said by phone from California, where he lives in the offseason. “The whole restaurant was quiet. Nobody was doing anything.”
Then I saw he was turning blue. Everybody in the restaurant was just kind of sitting there wide-eyed.”
The 6-foot-5 Gonzalez, about a foot taller than Hunter, jumped out of his chair and came up behind the stricken man and began to perform the Heimlich maneuver.
“After just a few seconds, the piece of meat popped out,” Hunter said. “I could breathe again. It’s a good thing Tony is so tall because I had stood up— I think.”
Diana Martin, a restaurant employee, said no one else seemed to know what to do.
“He was so lucky Tony was there,” Martin said. “In a situation like that, every second counts. It helped a lot that Tony’s a big, strong guy because you have to be able to apply some pretty good pressure. I don’t think I would have been strong enough to help him.”
Hunter went into the restroom to clean up and didn’t realize he’d been saved by a famous athlete until he came out.
“I’m a big NFL fan and I recognized him right away. I was still kind of dazed when I went over and thanked him and said, `What can I do for you?’ I guess I said it about 1,000 times.”
Gonzalez, who has been active in charity and community activities during a brilliant career with the Chiefs, said he had no intention of having the incident become public.
AP/Yahoo!
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