New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu was overseeing a lobster roll-eating contest when he sprang into action after a participant began choking.
Contestant Christian Moreno was on stage scarfing down lobster rolls when he signaled for help by tapping on his chest at the Hampton Beach Lobster Roll Eating Competition on Sunday.
The governor was watching from the side of the stage when he came out and started to perform the Heimlich maneuver on Moreno.
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“The gentleman at the far end, who I was kind of watching. I glanced over, I could tell very quickly, he took, took a pause, he was having trouble getting something down,” Sununu said in an interview with WMUR-TV.
“I started saying, ‘He’s choking; he’s choking.’ And I could tell people weren’t responding. So, I just moved forward and immediately started to kind of give him the Heimlich,” he added.
Five compressions later, Moreno was gulping in air and onlookers were able to breathe a sigh of relief.
It seems, they don’t call New Hampshire the Granite State for nothing. Unperturbed by his brush with death, Moreno carried on eating.
“He went right back to the contest, which I couldn’t believe. He ate another seven lobster rolls after that. Right down the gullet,” said Sununu.
The determined competitor didn’t even know it was the governor who saved his life.
Moreno said he knew that he was choking and shouldn’t panic, and he wanted to do all he could to get back to the contest. Contestants had 10 minutes to eat as many lobster rolls as possible, and Moreno was shooting for 20 and had downed two already when his throat choked up.
“My counter came up to me and, like, made a joke. And was like, ‘Oh, like, I bet nobody else can say that they've gotten the Heimlich from the governor before,’” said Moreno. “And I looked at him, was just like, that was, that was the governor?”
For the record, Moreno didn’t win but still managed to consume nine lobster rolls.
