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Mom screamed as daughter choked at NC Olive Garden. Dining cop leaped to the rescue.

A police captain dining at a Gastonia Olive Garden on Thursday saved the life of a girl who choked on her food, stopped breathing and turned blue, police said.

The girl’s mom had screamed for help.

“She’s not breathing, my baby’s not breathing!” the mother shouted, according to a Gastonia Police Facebook post.

The girl “was blue and limp, and people in the restaurant were upset and crying,” police posted.

Gastonia Police Capt. Trent Conard was at the restaurant on his lunch break. He administered “four or five back thrusts” on the girl, whose name and age police did not disclose.

Conard paused “to monitor” the girl, and that’s when “she came to, started crying, and suddenly everything was fine again,” police said.

Conard’s reaction to saving the girl?

“That’s what we do as police officers, that’s how we’re trained,” he said in the post.

Still, he said, “it’s awesome to be able to help someone in their moment of need and save a life.”

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Joe Marusak
The Charlotte Observer
Joe Marusak has been a reporter for The Charlotte Observer since 1989 covering the people, municipalities and major news events of the region, and was a news bureau editor for the paper. He currently reports on breaking news. Support my work with a digital subscription
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