Pro Bowl tight end Tony Gonzalez reportedly helped a man who was choking in a restaurant Thursday night."Tony saved my life. There's no doubt," Ken Hunter, a shipping company manager, told The Associated Press in a phone interview. "Tony came up behind me and gave me the Heimlich maneuver. Thank God he was there."
The Kansas City Chiefs player was having dinner at Capone's restaurant in Huntington Beach with his wife, brother and newborn daughter when he noticed Hunter, 45, choking on a piece of meat.
"I tried to take a drink of water, but I couldn't swallow. Then I couldn't breathe," Hunter told The AP. "That's a terrible feeling. I couldn't breathe. Then I guess I started to panic."
After hearing the shouts of Hunter's girlfriend and dining companion, Gonzalez ran to Hunter and began performing the Heimlich maneuver.
"After just a few seconds, the piece of meat popped out," Hunter said. "I could breathe again."
Gonzalez, who said he had no intention of making his role in the incident public, had never performed the Heimlich maneuver before, nor had he received training in how to perform it.
"I had seen it done, so I just did it," he said. "When you find yourself in those situations where you have to take action in a crucial situation, you just do it."
Hunter said he had gone to the bathroom to clean up and did not realize it was Gonzalez who performed the Heimlich until afterwards.
"I'm a big NFL fan and I recognized him right away," he added. "I was still kind of dazed when I went over and thanked him and said, 'What can I do for you?' I guess I said it about 1,000 times."
The lifelong fan of the Chiefs' rivals, the San Diego Chargers, also had one last thing to say about Gonzalez: "I'm Tony's No. 1 fan now."
