Joann Leser has been a waitress at Crystal Cafe for 20 years. She recently arrived at the eatery for her shift, and everything was going as it normally does until things suddenly took a nasty turn.

All was going well until a couple came in to get breakfast.

Since it was Saturday morning, Crystal Cafe was packed with people eating their breakfasts. Joann was busy serving her customers when she noticed out of the corner of her eye a woman get up and run for the bathroom. The woman seemed to be in distress, so Joann assumed that she might be sick. She didn’t know that something far worse was happening…

Just 15 seconds after she entered the bathroom, the woman opened the door and began frantically waving her hands. It was then that Joann realized that an emergency was happening right before her eyes, and that things could get deadly if she did not act fast.

Without hesitating, Joann ran over to the woman and spun her around. The waitress noticed the “panic in her eyes” as she desperately tried to breathe. Joann began the Heimlich Maneuver process, even though she now admits she had only ever seen it done on television and had never practiced it herself. After two thrusts, the choking woman was able to spit out her food and breathe again!

The entire situation unfolded so quickly that nobody had time to even call 911. Less than a minute after the woman had run into the bathroom, Joann was being hailed as a hero!

Find out more about this in the video below, and SHARE this story so your friends and family can see this as well!