WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. -- A man in Lycoming County is being labeled a hero after he saved the life of a choking six-year-old student at a school in Williamsport.
Odren Polk is a volunteer at Stevens Primary School in Williamsport, but now he can also add the title of lifesaver to his resume.
On January 15 around noon, first-grade students at Stevens Primary School in Williamsport went to the cafeteria for lunch. For most students, it was a normal day of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and chicken nuggets, but for Kenyan Ritter, it was a life-threatening moment.
“I choked on a tomato," Kenyan recalled.
“I noticed that he was choking and something was wrong, so I turned around, and I saw him with a very strange look on his face, so I immediately asked him if he was OK and he couldn't speak," school volunteer Odren Polk said.
The child couldn't breathe at all. That’s when Odren Polk came to his rescue. Polk began the Heimlich maneuver.
‘I immediately bent him over, and there's two forms of Heimlich, you know, the stomach form and the back form, and the first one I did didn't work, so it started getting worse, so I really had to apprehend him," Polk said.
That did the trick. Kenyan spit out the tomato.
The school's principal told Newswatch 16 that they are lucky to have Polk around.
“Having an adult monitoring in our school and having that ability to see that there was an issue and then deal with it appropriately was very special," said Stevens Primary School Principal Jim Ellis.
“I don't feel special. I feel appreciative, I feel like I had the knowledge that helped someone else, which I enjoy doing.”
But to Kenyan, Polk is very special.
“I'm happy he was there, and I am happy that he saved my life," Kenyan said.
Odren Polk works with AmeriCorps and has been volunteering at the school since the beginning of the school year. He encourages everybody to learn safety procedures in case they ever find themselves in a similar situation.