Valley Red Cross official uses Heimlich to save the life of choking man in Texas

Photo

Jannetti

By William K. Alcorn

alcorn@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Guido Jannetti used his training as an instructor for the Red Cross of the Mahoning Valley and as a former paramedic to perform the Heimlich maneuver to save a choking man’s life.

Jannetti of Leetonia was in a Dallas restaurant having lunch with colleagues before an afternoon session at a Red Cross conference when he noticed a commotion at a nearby table.

Children were screaming and gathered around their father while the man’s wife pounded his back trying to get him breathing.

Jannetti said the wife had her husband sitting in a chair, a good position for him to apply the Heimlich.

He said he did abdominal thrusts, and on the second or third try a chunk of chicken and other debris came out, and the man was able to breathe.

Jannetti, who was born in New Castle, Pa., and grew up in New Middletown, said he talked briefly afterward with the man’s wife, who said her husband has a history of seizures, which she originally thought was the problem.

“I didn’t do anything special. They said, ‘Thank you.’ I said, ‘Have a good day,’ and they went on their way,” Jannetti said.

The need for the Heimlich maneuver previously came a little closer to home, however. He said while he was a paramedic before coming to the Red Cross, he used the procedure on a niece and on his wife, Tammi, a registered nurse in the medical surgery department at St. Elizabeth Boardman Health Center.

“I’m a very big proponent of at least one person in every family learning CPR and first aid,” said Jannetti, who has been with the Red Cross for eight years and is its head of preparedness health and safety services.

Jannetti, 57, graduated from Springfield High School in 1972 and from Youngstown State University in 2000 with a bachelor’s degree in emergency health-care management. He has two stepsons, Robert and Bret Pacella.

“The Red Cross of the Mahoning Valley is so proud of our own hometown hero who saved a life,” said Karen E. Conklin, executive director.