Union County SRO's quick actions save student choking on chicken nugget

UNION COUNTY, N.C. — A school resource officer at Porter Ridge Elementary School in Union County is being heralded as a hero after saving the life of a student who was choking.

According to the sheriff’s office, Deputy Tiffany Hill was in the school’s office around lunch on Monday when she heard a child violently coughing in the hallway.

The child's second grade teacher Kellie Lowe said she was the first to notice something was wrong.

"I look over and I see Kevin kind of turned around backwards with his hands on his seat, like I thought he was sick, like he was throwing up or something," Lowe said. "I went over to him and I was like 'Kevin are you OK?' He was just like 'No.' Coughing, trying to throw up, even putting his hands in his mouth trying get something."

Lowe was escorting the child to the nurse’s office when Hill heard someone say, “As long as he’s coughing, he’s OK.”

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The deputy realized the child was choking and had something stuck in his throat. She sat him in a chair in the nurse’s office when the student suddenly stopped coughing, came out of the chair and fell on the floor, struggling to breathe.

"I remember through my training, patting them on the back is not a good thing so I told her just them him be," Hill said. "As long as he's coughing and breathing, trying to get it out of him. "They got to a point where it appeared he was struggling to breath. At that time, he took a big gasp and then fell to the floor.

Hill immediately picked him up and began performing abdominal thrusts in hopes to clear his airway.

After the third thrust, the student spit out part of a chicken nugget that was lodged in this throat.

Hill said this was the first time using the heimlich manuever.

The child, 8-year-old Kevin Ramirez-Villa Gomez, had been outside in the school courtyard having lunch when he started choking. His teacher rushed him inside and was on her way to the nurse’s office when Hill came to help.

Kevin is OK and said the deputy was a “saver.”

Assistant Principal Jalonda Polk described Hill as amazing and said she goes above and beyond building relationships with the children.

“She was so reassuring to Kevin, and she walked away like, ‘That just happened,’” Polk said.

Hill grew up in Oakboro and was a classmate of Billy Huddleston, a 12-year-old boy who was murdered in 2000 by Bobby Taylor, a fugitive from Virginia who lived next door to Hill and her family.

Huddleston’s murder was a big factor that inspired Hill to want to protect young people, according to the sheriff’s office.

“Tiffany is a shining star,” said Union County Sheriff Eddie Cathey. “She goes out of her way to help people and is constantly volunteering her time to serve others. She is truly an asset for Union County and makes a difference everywhere she goes. We are so thankful she was there on Monday to help this child.”

Cox Media Group