First-year student nurse saves child's life on metro

María López Sánchez, 18, started her first year at nursing college in September in her home town of Aynadamar (Granada province), but was not expecting to have to use her new skills within weeks of beginning her course.

She was on the Granada metro with her mother heading to Armilla when the pair heard a woman shouting in distress that her son was choking.

María said afterwards that the other passengers on the train paid no attention.

The young student dropped everything – literally – and rushed to the mum and nine-year-old boy 'without thinking twice'.

She said the little boy was bright red and clutching his throat, then his face started to turn purple.

María immediately performed a Heimlich Manoeuvre, which she had learnt during a one-hour chat on first aid which her class had attended as a special awareness session on cardiac arrest.

The future nurse sat the boy on her lap and carried out the manoeuvre until he spat out the sweet he was choking on.

As soon as the child was able to breathe enough to get any words out, he said: “Thank you for helping me.”

“I can't remember how many contractions I did, because everything was a blur,” María admitted afterwards.

“The idea of the Heimlich Manoeuvre is to apply pressure to the abdomen so that the force of the movement helps the lungs to expel whatever's choking the patient.

“I just trusted in what I'd learnt that day and everything went well, so it shows they've taught me properly!”

Named after Dr Henry Heimlich, the medic who first performed the movement in 1974, the technique can be carried out using the back of a chair if the person is alone at the time of choking.