By Elizabeth Rapf
Albuquerque Journal
TIJERAS, N.M. — Roosevelt Middle School janitor Del Finio went to the school’s cafeteria to score his granddaughter a piece of pizza, but he wound up saving seventh-grader Danny Connors’ life instead.
“I looked around,” Finio said, “and was like, ‘Whoa, there’s somebody choking.’”
Danny was goofing off with a group of friends when a chip became lodged in his windpipe.
“I know I said it was a bag of Doritos,” said Danny’s father, Matt Connors. “But I bet it was nachos. It was nachos, wasn’t it, Danny?” “It was nachos,” Danny said. “It was nachos with ground meat and cheese on top,” Finio said. He would know.
When others realized what had happened, “everybody panicked, everybody froze,” Finio said. Everyone, that is, except Finio. Finio sprang into action, performed the Heimlich maneuver and CPR, and successfully dislodged the chip. “Mostly, we’re glad that he was there,” Matt Connors said. “For us, you think about it. It’s like, how do you even thank someone for saving your kid’s life?”
But Finio insists he doesn’t want recognition.
“I didn’t do it for attention,” he said. “I thought, ‘What if it was my granddaughter? What if it was my kid?’”
Finio said it was his family that motivated him to learn CPR in the first place.
“I practice on my family,” he said. “I want my family to be safe.”
Besides, “I think there was a still a bit of chip left when I was done,” Finio insisted modestly.
Connors said paramedics were called, as a precaution.
“It was worse than we thought,” Connors said. “When they called us, Danny could talk to me on the phone. It didn’t sound that bad. Then, we got here and found out paramedics had been called. And they recommended the ER.”
“There was some scratching on the back of Danny’s throat afterwards,” Connors said.
But he credits Finio with saving Danny’s life.
“I haven’t had the chance to meet him before now,” Connors said at the interview Tuesday.
When asked whether he’d be eating nachos again anytime soon, Danny was nonspecific. But he recalled the CPR itself in precise detail. “It lasted about 20 seconds,” Danny said. “But I bet it felt longer, at the time,” said his father.
Danny agreed. “It was scary,” he said. Finio described performing the CPR procedure. “There wasn’t much room at the table, so we cleared some space,” he said. “His chest felt hard. I felt it soften before the chip came up.” “We’ve told Danny since then, ‘eating time’ isn’t necessarily ‘goofing off time,’” Connors said.
Danny also seemed to think the fun might not have been worth it.
“I don’t remember what the joke was,” he said. Finio said he was a volunteer firefighter many years ago. But it’s not clear that saving lives will become part of his daily routine. “I just did what had to be done,” he said.
Copyright 2010 Albuquerque Journal