MARLBORO, MASS. (WHDH) - A routine meal at New Horizon Assisted Living Facility almost took a scary turn.
But that’s to a quick-thinking college student who works there, a woman is still here for the holidays.
Phyliis Bagdasarian, 93, is still full of energy and laughter. And she’s forever grateful that Brian O’Leary sprang into action in her time of need.
“He’s polite, he’s kind, and that day he was my hero,” she said.
Bagdasarian sat down for a pot roast dinner last week and was eating her meal when she suddenly realized something was wrong.
“I didn’t know what to do, so I sat there feeling terrible and behind be, unbeknownst to me, was Brian,” she recalled.
O’Leary, the dining room supervisor, remembered his training and used the Heimlich maneuver.
“I noticed she was having some airway problems, so I just told her to lift her arms up,” he said. ‘It was only a few pumps, fortunately, because here some people can be very fragile.”
Thankfully, the food came out, and soon Phyllis was breathing normally again.
Now, she’s going into the holidays with a new lease on life.
“How luck was I that day,” she asked. “Really and truly, he doesn’t usually serve my table, somebody put him there that day. Someone from above.”
O’Leary says he’s regularly trained on life-saving measures and he’s just grateful he was at the right place at the right time.
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