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Larry Ensley’s stomach began rumbling with hunger, so he left his desk at Shaw Industries Plant 3 and grabbed some chicken. In the midst of enjoying the treat, he realized he was having trouble swallowing.
Ensley got something to drink in the break room but that didn’t work. Co-worker David Lindsay walked in and Ensley asked him for help, thinking he was having a heart attack. Lindsay yelled for help and someone called 911. Another co-worker, Charles Tidwell, brought Ensley wet towels and prayed with Ensley to help keep him calm. Ensley finally told Lindsay it wasn’t a heart attack.
He was choking.
Lindsay grabbed Ensley and performed the Heimlich maneuver several times before an ambulance arrived. However, Ensley was only able to release the liquid he’d tried to drink a few minutes earlier. Emergency medical technicians got him in the ambulance and began intravenous fluids, while Ensley was finding it more and more difficult to breathe. Then suddenly he began regurgitating the chicken.
According to Ensley, emergency room physicians said after X-rays and other tests that Lindsay had done most of the work before Ensley arrived at the hospital. The chicken dislodged enough during the Heimlich maneuver that Ensley was able to cough it up. Ensley also says the doctor and the medical personnel at the hospital concluded that without Lindsay’s quick action, Ensley likely wouldn’t have survived.
For his quick action in helping save a co-worker’s life, The Daily Citizen names David Lindsay Citizen of the Week.
