03/05/10

An employee at CSI's Office on Aging credits a welding student with saving her life. Eldora Walker was enjoying her lunch break last week, until she found herself choking on some turkey.

Luckily for her, Chrystal Hohn, a welding student who does her work study at the Office on Aging, came into the kitchen right away and performed abdominal thrusts on Eldora; within a few seconds, she coughed up the morsel.

Eldora said, "I didn't even know the sign you're choking. So I was flailing my arms. Chrystal told me by that time, I was purple."

Hohn took a first aid and CPR class last semester at CSI which prepared her for this moment.

Hohn said, "When it first happened, my adrenaline was pumping, heart was going fast, I was breathing fast, it was a real rush for a few seconds."

The office and college showered Chrystal with gifts, but she remains modest about her efforts.

She says, "I can't believe that there was all this for helping another person because that's really what makes the world go round."

But for Eldora, who went to the emergency room and remains a little hoarse, she says wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for Chrystal.

"I owe her everything; she's a wonderful, wonderful person. So thanks to her, I'm upright."