For mothers of small children, not knowing what to do when their toddlers are choking can be a terrifying experience. That’s just what happened to Rockwall, Texas, mother Nicole Hornback on Sept. 18, 2019, when Rockwall High School was holding its annual homecoming parade.
That’s when her son’s would-be guardian angel descended upon him—only this rescuer wasn’t a paramedic; she was a 17-year-old senior cheerleader named Tyra Winters.
While Hornback, like any mother, tries to take the best care of her kids she can, she realized to her dismay that she was unable to perform the Heimlich on her son, as she had never learned how. “To feel so useless as a mother was the most terrifying thing in my life,” she recounted.
Winters shared how a fun situation abruptly turned into a moment of terror. “I hear someone screaming, ‘Help, help, my son’s choking,’” the cheerleader recalled, soon realizing that it was up to her to intervene.
“My very, very first thought was like, ‘Oh my God, I got to help this child,’” she said.
“I was so distraught, I couldn’t speak,” the mom shared.
Before Hornback knew what was happening, the teen had calmly taken control of the situation. Winters had received first responder training when she was in 8th grade, as her mother, who runs a foster home for children, made sure that her daughter knew what to do in just such an emergency situation.
“I immediately jumped off the float, I ran down to the kiddo, and I was like, ‘I got him,’and I grabbed him from the mom,” Winters said.
There are different ways to treat patients who are choking; for toddlers like Clarke, weighing between 20 and 40 pounds (9 and 18 kg), the best method involved having them face head down.
The cheerleader picked him up, tilted him downwards, and delivered two or three back thrusts between his shoulder blades with the base of her hand. “He then was spitting everything up,” Winters explained.
The mother could hardly fathom that she almost lost her youngest child. Asked how she felt about Winters’s brave act, she said, “The words that you would say to anyone who does something for you is ’thank you.' But that doesn’t seem good enough.”
“I knew what she was feeling,” the cheerleader recalled. “I saw her tears. I saw her face.”
However, Winters’s tasks that day weren’t over yet. She had another role to play in her high school’s parade, and so she ran back to catch up with the float.
Later, Hornback posted an appreciative message on Facebook, praising the teen for her quick action. The school district found out about what had happened and brought the mom and her son in to meet his rescuer. While he didn’t seem to remember the teen who saved his life, the two shared a pleasant moment together.
“I know they’re calling me the town hero ... But most importantly, I’m just glad the boy is okay,” said Winters, who hopes to pursue a career as a pediatric surgeon; she’s already taken a great first step in the field of saving lives. Hornback, meanwhile, said she intends to sign up for child CPR training right away.
