When Jose Lopez of Worcester walked into the local Applebee’s in Westfield for dinner April 14, he didn’t expect that at the end of the day he would be responsible for saving someone’s life.
Lopez, then a senior at Westfield State College, planned on meeting his professor Robert Mack, teacher of critical thinking for the Urban Education program, to discuss his upcoming graduation and plans for the future.
At the end of their dinner, Mack said he noticed a woman choking. Mack said, Lopez responded immediately by announcing himself and began performing the Heimlich maneuver.
Helping people in need is a natural reaction for Lopez. He has been a certified emergency medical technician for three years, as well as a member of the EMT Club at Westfield State. Lopez couldn’t just stand back and watch this happen, so when he saw this woman chocking, he immediately told people to call an ambulance and rushed to her side and began the Heimlich maneuver and back thrust movements.
“We are proud that one of our graduates used skills learned at the college to save someone’s life,” said Evan S. Dobelle, president of Westfield State College. “The college offers many types of positive experience, in addition to a quality academic education. The EMT Club is one of them.” While performing the Heimlich, Jose said the woman “just collapsed in my arms. All I could do was back thrusts, until the food was released.”
Shortly afterward, the woman began to wake. “I wanted her to make noise, so I asked her to speak and she began to mumble something,” Lopez said. “Slowly her heart rate began to come back, and that is when the ambulance came.”
After his heroic deed, Lopez received recognition letters from the Westfield State College Campus Police and the Westfield Police Department thanking him for his efforts.
In an email to Westfield State College President Evan S. Dobelle, Mack said that “without question, Jose H. Lopez is a hero that we, and Westfield State College, can all be very proud of!”
Currently Jose is taking a vacation in Puerto Rico, where he was born and often visits. However, due to his saving money for school, he hasn’t been since 2004. “Now that I don’t have to save money for college expenses like classes and books, I can afford to come back this year,” Lopez said. “This is kind of a graduation reward to myself.”
Lopez graduated from Westfield State this May with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and a minor in psychology.
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