RRMR student uses life-saving maneuver to save friend’s life

By Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescitypress.com

For a brief moment last week, Adam Wyborny was terrified that he might not be able to catch another breath.

The RRMR eighth-grader was gasping for air — his face had turned to a hue of blue.

Seconds felt like minutes.

Laughter around the lunch table quickly turned to confusion.

Soon his classmates realized the severity of the situation — Wyborny was choking.

Those who sat across from Wyborny that day a week ago Thursday in the RRMR School cafeteria can now breath of sigh of relief that Wyborny pulled through.

He’s alive and well, but he may never look at the cheesy, garlic breadsticks the school’s lunch staff serves the same way again.

A piece of a breadstick got lodged in Wyborny’s throat and he desperately tried to get it out — but to no avail.

“I was actually thinking, ‘am I going to make it?’” said Wyborny. “I actually thought I was going to die. I was scared.”

That’s when his friend, Zack Pearce, didn’t hesitate and sprung into action. His heroic and quick-thinking efforts may have saved Wyborny’s life.

“I saw that he was turning purple after like 15 seconds. He started changing colors and I’m like, ‘oh, this is for real,’” said Pearce. “All of us thought he was joking. They all just sat there and watched. They didn’t know what to do. It was serious.”

Then instinct kicked in and Pearce initiated the Heimlich maneuver on Wyborny. After three or four thrusts near the sternum area, the breadstick came free from Wyborny’s throat and fell to the ground. Pearce said the piece of gooey bread was smaller than a golf ball but a little bit larger than a marble.

“All our buddies around us were like, ‘holy crap, did that just happen?’”  Pearce said.

Wyborny and Pearce had plenty to talk about later that day when they shot hoops together — something they often do as both are involved in numerous sports for the Warriors.

“I couldn’t do anything. I was just holding my throat trying to get it out,” said Wyborny. “I just took a second and then I was like, ‘oh my gosh, he saved me.’”

The whole incident took no more than 40 seconds, but a class that Pearce took a year before when he was in seventh grade proved to be a literal life-saver. The J-term mini-class was led by Kelly Arickx, who is an EMT (emergency medical technician) and also teaches first aid and CPR classes.

“It’s our hope — always — that something we share will help someone,” said Arickx. “So I’m really happy that he chose that mini-class.”

RRMR Principal Nick Johnson said the J-term classes were first offered for RRMR students less than two years ago. Students can pick interest areas that different classes may address.

“If we didn’t determine to have this J-term, he might have not known what to do,” said Johnson.

Johnson considers Pearce a hero for saving his friend’s life.

“I don’t think Adam actually relayed the sign to him right away. Zack kind of had to decipher in his head, ‘hey, this is what is really happening’ and then he moved in,’” said Johnson.

Though the class he took helped Pearce understand the proper techniques to implement the Heimlich maneuver, to actually successfully administer the approach is a different story, according to Johnson.

He said it was amazing that a 14-year-old was be able to step in and execute the maneuver with little time to spare.

“The execution — the recognizing the situation and executing it — you can’t teach that. It’s gotta’ come naturally,” said Johnson.

Even before the scary moment, Pearce has been interested in law enforcement or possibly headed down a career path of saving lives and becoming an EMT, he said.

“I had to act fast,” said Pearce. “I actually want to go to college to be an EMT.”

What was Pearce’s reward from Wyborny for potentially saving his life?

“I didn’t eat the rest of my food. I gave it to him actually,” laughed Wyborny.

Wyborny said he is probably going to chew his food better after the incident.

“I was just talking with my friends and it must have just went down wrong,” said Wyborny. “I knew right there that I was actually choking.”

All involved can now laugh about the scary scenario that turned into a life-saving moment that may well come up again in story form during school reunions decades later.

“Anytime you can celebrate kids it’s a great thing,” said Johnson.

Just this week the lunch staff again served breadsticks, but they weren’t like the ones that students had last week, Wyborny smiled, recalling the difference between the two. Pearce said those sticks had cheese in the middle.

“It was very, very cheesy,” laughed Pearce.