It wasn't the luck of the Irish that saved 7-year-old Patrick Bojorquez from choking on a four-leaf clover cookie -- it was his friend and classmate, Hunter Hoffman.
On St. Patrick's Day, the third graders were eating their dessert during lunchtime at Plainfield Elementary School when a piece of cookie got lodged in Patrick's throat.
Having learned the Heimlich Maneuver from his 12-year-old sister that took a first aid class for baby-sitting, Hunter spring into action.
"I knew when to do it because he wasn't saying anything, he just got up out of his seat," Hunter said. "It was scary."
Hunter got behind Patrick, began squeezing-thrusts on the abdomen, and on the third thrust, the cookies came out.
"My wife and myself are very proud of him," Hunter's dad, Steve Hoffman, said. "For a 7-year-old who never had any first-hand training, it's pretty good."
Patrick's mom, Cameron Dewberry, said she didn't even hear about the incident until she picked Hunter up from school to take him to baseball practice, and "he went and played baseball like nothing ever happened."
She said the full impact of the situation didn't hit her until she spoke with Hunter's mom at his eighth birthday party two days later and learned, "(Patrick) wasn't making a sound which is the trigger that someone is truly choking."
"I think it's amazing that a 7-year-old boy has instincts like that," Dewberry said. "Had I been there I probably would have freaked out. How perfect it
was that they were eating lunch together at that time; my son could have died."AdvertisementOn Monday the kids teacher, Barbara Herms, had all of her students pay a compliment to someone in their lives. Hunter thanked Patrick "for not letting me choke."
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