DUBLIN, Georgia — If you ask Tykia Pullen what she fears, she'll tell you snakes and choking.
That's because she still remembers what happened on Sep. 8- the day the second-grader at Hillcrest Elementary School choked on a water bottle cap.
"I was very thirsty, and then I had to get some water, but I couldn't open it because mamma tied it tight," Pullen said.
So Pullen put the bottle in her mouth and took off the cap with her teeth. That's when the cap slid down her throat, getting lodged there.
She ran across the room to where her P.E. teacher, Ashai Brown, was standing.
"At first, I was thinking, wow, what is- it's possibly nothing she can be choking on. It must be something like some spit or just some water," Brown said.
But she quickly realized this was serious and started doing the Heimlich maneuver on Pullen. She said she didn't process what had happened until afterward.
"Let me get it out. Whatever it is, it has to come out. I don't know if I can get it out, but I have to do my best to try," Brown said.
The whole thing was over in less than a minute, and Pullen's mom, Miranda Carter, is forever grateful for Brown's quick actions. She also hopes people can learn a lesson from her daughter's story.
"And to all the kids, keep the bottled waters out your mouth...don't open them yourselves," Carter said.
Brown agrees and hopes people learn another lesson from that day- the importance of knowing the Heimlich maneuver. She said she learned it because of Dublin City Schools' annual first aid training they provide for teachers.
"I'm just going to go ahead and put it all on the training. I guess the training they- I really paid attention or the training really- I really learned from the training," Brown said.
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