A GRATEFUL mum has thanked a plucky Sheffield restaurant worker for saving her husband's life when he choked on a piece of steak.
Alan Cooper, aged 66, of Hurlfield Road, Gleadless, was enjoying Sunday lunch with his family at the Chequers Inn, at Coal Aston, Dronfield, when the meat became lodged in his throat, blocking his airway.
His wife Carole, 64, said Alan collapsed
to the floor and had stopped breathing when Sean Swindell, the Chequers' kitchen team leader, came to the rescue and performed the Heimlich manoeuvre.
Carole told The Star Alan choked on the steak while talking to his eldest granddaughter, Stephanie, eight.
She said: "It shot back into his mouth, he hadn't even swallowed it. He was trying to do too many things at once.
"He stumbled down the steps at the front of the restaurant and collapsed on the floor. I was very frightened and scared."
Sean, 21, from Unstone, Chesterfield, said he found Alan, a former steelworker, collapsed near the front door.
"Someone came in the kitchen and said there was a guy outside choking. He'd collapsed to the floor unconscious, he'd turned blue. He was trying to get away from the restaurant.
"There was no air going through his airways at all, so I just ran out, picked this 17 stone bloke up and managed to get the steak out.
"I picked him up and put my hands under his ribs. It took two really big thrusts to get it out. He regained consciousness after that.
"I asked him if he felt sick or anything. He seemed alright so I sat him up.
"It was a fair old chunk of steak. I don't know how he managed to swallow it, it was massive. At first I thought he was going to die. It was a very scary ordeal."
Carole said their daughter, Claire, 37, tried to dislodge the steak herself, but found it too difficult. Members of the family and customers were calling 999.
Alan's fellow diners included son Edward, 35, his wife Nikki, 24, and three younger grandchildren Jacob, four, Amelia, three, and Abigail, two.
Carole added: "The 999 calls must have been bouncing off the walls at the call centre. If Sean hadn't done what he did he would have died, I've absolutely no doubt about that."
Sean said: "If we had waited for the ambulance the guy would have died. He'd gone about four to five minutes without oxygen."
Carole said Alan worked at Firth Brown's steelworks in Sheffield from 1963, but retired due to ill health after suffering a heart attack in 1995, and takes tablets for angina.
"He's lucky to be alive, he stopped breathing twice in hospital," she added.
Sean said he was able to help Alan after taking an NVQ in first aid at Charnwood Academy, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, last year.
"I think if I hadn't done a first aid course I wouldn't have known what to do. It's definitely worth having, in any pub really."
"It's very important to know about first aid," Carole said.
"I can't find the words to say thank you to Sean."
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