A pair of military veterans – two generations apart – are now tied together forever after one ended up saving the other’s life in a San Antonio parking lot.
Cecilia Neathery took her Air Force veteran father, John Curney, to McDonald’s before his regular birthday haircut the morning of Feb. 5. On the way to the hair salon, the sausage biscuit Curney was eating became lodged in his throat.
“I noticed that he couldn’t talk, and I asked him, ‘Are you choking?’ He kind of shook his head yes,” Neathery said.
Adam Green (left), a 16-year Army veteran, saved Air Force veteran John Curney after he choked on a sausage biscuit.(Source: KENS, Cecilia Neathery, Adam Green via CNN)
Curney said he thought he was going to die.
“I was thinking, ‘I’m choking. I’m gonna die,’” he said.
“He was turning blue and purple at this time, his lips, his neck,” Neathery said.
Neathery pulled into a nearby parking lot. Her father had already been without air for a minute, and she knew she didn’t have much time to figure out how to save his life.
That’s when 16-year Army veteran Adam Green spotted the struggling pair.
“I saw the desperation and fear in her eyes, and I figured I had to stop and see what was going on,” Green said.
He pulled into the parking lot himself, and once he learned Curney was choking, he sprang into action and administered the Heimlich maneuver.
“Everything came out – all the dough, all the sausage – and then, I could breathe again,” Curney said.
Thanks to Green, Curney was able to make it to his birthday lunch later that day.
“He’s my hero for saving my dad’s life. I love you, Adam,” Neathery said.
Green says he was in the right place at the right time.
“If I wasn’t running late, I never would have came across them. You know, the outcome could have been different,” Green said.