Clint Eastwood Heimlich Maneuver Saves Life of Choking Golf Director

Clint Eastwood saved a choking man's life with the Heimlich maneuver at a party on the eve of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am tournament Wednesday night at the Monterey Conference Center.

The 83-year-old actor administered the Heimlich maneuver to tournament director Steve John, 50, who was choking on a piece of cheese, The Associated Press reported.

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''I was drinking water and eating these little appetizers, threw down a piece of cheese and it just didn't work,'' John said Friday. ''I was looking at him and couldn't breathe. He recognized it immediately and saved my life.''

A former amateur contestant and now chairman of the Monterey Peninsula Foundation, Eastwood is a prominent figure at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am who frequently presents the trophy to the winner. He has raised over $100 million for charity as the host of the 72-hole PGA Tour championship, the AP noted.

I actually saw it performed on a war hero at luncheon where Tx AG Greg Abbott was speaking.

This was over 30 years ago, but I performed it on a fellow sailor that likely had too much to drink and was choking on his vomit. The ship was in the shipyards so there weren't many people around. It was just pure luck for that individual that I happened to get up to relieve myself and saw him. He had that deer in the headlights look. I did the maneuver 2 or 3 times and the chunk he was choking on popped right out.

I admit, I went through a stage in my life where liquids were always going down the wrong way, but I have never had more than a little particle of something solid go down, which is irritating enough.

Worst one I ever had, though, was driving around rural Maine with some buddies, having a good time, and I was in the back seat eating some Sweet Tarts. (I know, that should be enough to kill you there)

I had a mouth of chewed up Sweet Tart, and some went down the wrong way. If you have ever eaten them, you can imagine what that does to your trachea.

My entire respiratory system went into an absolute spasm. I could not breathe, and it didn’t feel like it was going to open back up any time soon. Ever have the wind knocked out of you? This was like a chemical version of that, except when the wind is knocked out of you, you can force yourself to relax and know that air will come back again, and probably won’t kill you.

When I finally got my breath back, I nearly had the shakes. If we needed medical assistance, the nearest hospital was probably an hour and a half away. I chewed on THAT for a while, and didn’t feel like an invulnerable young adult anymore.

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