Mansfield: Officer saves woman from choking on gum

MANSFIELD, Texas — The Mansfield Police Department Thursday released video of a patrol officer performing the Heimlich maneuver on a woman choking on the side of Interstate 20. 

The woman, identified in a press release only as Samantha, told police she’d swallowed a piece of gum when another driver swerved in front of her car. She drove with her hazard lights flashing, trying to cough up the gum or get help.

Officer Chad Stevens was returning to Mansfield from Everman, where he says he’d taken a police report when he noticed Samantha’s panic. 

“She was swerving back and forth, speeding up and slowing down, so I could tell they were probably in some kind of distress,” Stevens said Thursday. “When I got up beside her, she was waving like, ‘Help me!'”

Dash camera video from Stevens’ car shows the officer and Samantha stop, partially blocking I-20’s eastbound left lane. Samantha exited the car, coughed, and grabbed her neck. 

“You’re choking? Turn around,” Stevens can be heard yelling in audio captured by his body-worn camera. 

Stevens squeezed the woman four times and dislodged the gum. 

“Thank you so much. Oh my gosh,” she told the officer. “I was looking for anybody.” 

Stevens returned to his car and called a medic, which Samantha later said she did not need. 

“She said she was driving for probably 15 minutes and she said it was getting worse,” Stevens recounted Thursday. “She was just kind of breathing through the holes in the gum.”

Samantha repeatedly thanked Stevens, who’s served as a Mansfield Police officer for 12 years. He has never had to perform the Heimlich maneuver on duty, he said. 

“I believe firmly any officer in the Mansfield Police Department would be able to do the same, with the training we experience,” he added. 

Stevens joked that he did not know the flavor or brand of gum, but that it “looked like a good-sized piece.” 

“I’m glad I was at the right place at the right time,” he said. “That’s what we’re here to do.”