It is ludicrous to turn someone, who was choking, upside down. Well, I had never believed that the best way to clear a person’s choke was to turn him upside down until I witnessed it with my pair of appalling eyes…
Christmas had arrived. As usual, my family was dining in a swanky French restaurant and happily feasting on a delectable Christmas set dinner. Gawking at the ambrosial dishes laid out on the dining table, we salivated. My gluttonous and voracious brother, Frank, was so ravenous that he grabbed the whole plate of crispy-brown nuggets to himself.
He was happily gorging down the nuggets when he choked. He was clutching his oily and portly hands over his throat and gasping for breath. His once cherubic and chubby-cheeked face turned white as sheet.
Our eyes were dilated in disbelief and horror. Mum was stupefied to the point of collapse.
“Bro, breath, j…just breath. C…cough, try c…coughing out the nuggets!” I faltered with fear choking my fading voice.
He tried but failed. Dad hurried to his back and patted it hard but to no avail. Feeling helpless, I clamoured for help.
Within seconds, a waiter hurried over and Dad elucidated to him what had happened.
“Don’t worry, Sir, we know just what to do!” the waiter left in a jiffy and returned with a gang of stalwart waiters who looked like Incredible Hulk!
“Move aside, Sir and Madam, we need the space and don’t worry, your son is in good hands.”
Together, they joined forced and lifted my beefy brother up and guessed what – they turned him upside down and began shaking him vigorously!
We were aghast and gawked at them, speechless! It took a few seconds to recover from our stupor.
“Let go of him, you nuts! Turn him over now! You are killing him!” Mum reprimanded. “I’m going to report you guys to your manager!”
The startled waiters did as told. While Dad was berating them and Mum storming towards the manager’s office, I bellowed to them that Frank was all right – he had vomitted the nugget out!
Mum rushed back to the scene where we were totally amazed by the waiters’ magical efforts. Immediately, Dad and Mum thanked the waiters and Mum was very apologetic towards the waiter for being so obnoxious.
“It’s okay, Madam, these types of choking incidents happen all the time!” one of the waiters said and flashed us a winsome smile while the rest bowed to acknowledge our gratefulness.
We were astounded by the answers. Having thanked them, we went back to our dinner.
So the next time if you see someone choke, try this method – it may work! Good luck!
Vocabulary and Good Phrases
ludicrous – completely unreasonable, stupid, or wrong (ridiculous)
appalling – shocking
swanky – very fashionable and expensive
ambrosial / delectable – delicious looking
salivated – saliva drooling
gluttonous – greedy
voracious – greedy devouring or eager to devour large quantities of food ravenous hungry
gorging – stuffing mouth with food
portly – fat and round
cherubic and chubby-cheeked – innocent, cute face of a child with fleshy cheeks
eyes were dilated in disbelief and horror. – eyes gleamed wide with fear
stupefied to the point of collapse – shocked to the point of fainting
clamoured – shouted
elucidated – explain in detail
in a jiffy – very soon
stalwart – strong and muscular
beefy – fat and round
aghast – feeling or looking shocked by something you have seen or just found out
gawked – stare at something for a long time, in a way that looking stupid
stupor – a state in which there is a partial or complete loss of sensibility
startled – to make someone suddenly surprised or slightly shocked
berating / berate – to speak angrily to someone because they have done something wrong
apologetic – showing or saying that you are sorry that something has happened, especially because you feel guilty or embarrassed about it
obnoxious – rude and offensive
winsome – pleasant and attractive way