Lifestyle

A Cashier Used High School Training to Save a Doctor Who Was Choking

By Mike Harper · May 12, 2026

Keztly Angel learned the Heimlich maneuver in a high school Red Cross training course. She is a cashier. She did not expect to use it at work.

When a doctor began choking at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois, Angel stepped forward and performed the abdominal thrusts her training had prepared her for. The obstruction cleared. The doctor was not seriously injured. Angel returned to work.

The American Red Cross of Greater Chicago named her one of its 2026 local heroes for the act — recognizing her alongside other nominees at the Red Cross Heroes Breakfast, an annual event honoring civilians who perform acts of courage and service in their communities.

The story has a detail that earns it more than a routine ceremony mention: the person Angel helped was a physician. The setting where medical emergencies are theoretically most manageable — a hospital — is also a setting where an unexpected choking incident at a cashier station might not immediately produce a trained responder. It produced Keztly Angel, who happened to have been paying attention in a high school classroom years earlier.

The Heimlich maneuver — formally called abdominal thrusts — has been a standard first aid technique since Dr. Henry Heimlich described it in 1974. It is taught in virtually every American Red Cross first aid and CPR course. It is simple, teachable, and effective — and it requires no equipment beyond two hands and the willingness to act. The Red Cross estimates that approximately 5,000 Americans die from choking each year, making it one of the leading preventable causes of accidental death. The vast majority of choking deaths happen because no one nearby knew what to do or acted in time.

Angel knew what to do. She acted in time. For that, she has a Red Cross award and a story that will presumably come up at some point every time she does a training refresher.

The Red Cross of Greater Chicago offers first aid and CPR certification courses throughout the Chicago area. Information is available at redcross.org/illinois.