Willie Ross had intended to be a fan Saturday at Oracle Park, watching the San Francisco Giants play against his son’s team, the Washington Nationals. Instead, Ross needed to make a critical play to save a woman’s life, tapping into what he does when he’s not watching baseball.
Ross, a pediatrician at Stanford Hospital, noticed a woman choking on a hot dog during the game. While the woman gestured that she was OK, Ross told the Mercury News that she couldn’t talk when he went over to check on her.
So Ross performed the Heimlich maneuver to dislodge three pieces of hot dog.
“The third piece came out the size of my thumb — like the first knuckle — and then she said, ‘I can talk,’” Ross told KNBR. The doctor received a round of applause from those sitting around him.
Later, police and paramedics came to check on the woman, who had recently retired after 53 years as a nurse. But Ross had already saved her life.
“She was thankful, she was grateful,” Ross said, according to MLB.com, “but she was also a little embarrassed because she is a nurse, and so she’s used to giving, not receiving.”
This isn’t the first time Ross has saved someone’s life at a baseball game. He once helped a woman who had a stroke at a Little League game.
“I’ve seen a lot,” Ross said. “In the grand scheme of things, this was low on the totem pole.”
This article is based in part on wire service reports.
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