Saurette said she suddenly heard kids screaming, "He's choking!" and looked up and saw the shocked 11-year-old Hernandez struggling to breathe.

When Dominick Hernandez recently found himself choking on a nacho in his school cafeteria in Fall River, food server Christine Saurette's motherly instincts kicked in. She immediately ran to save the gasping fifth-grader.

"I ran over, grabbed him, and started doing the Heimlich maneuver. ... Then he started throwing up, and then I knew he was OK," said Suarette, who works at the Samuel Watson Elementary School. "It felt like a million years to me, but I guess it was only a few minutes."


Hernandez described Suarette — whom he and his peers call Miss Chris — as a good person, who is nice, kind, and helpful. He said he would always be grateful to her for saving him from choking last Tuesday.

For Hernandez's mother, Jodi DeCourcy, the words "hero" and "thank you" aren't strong enough.

"We're eternally grateful for her doing what her motherly instincts led her to do," DeCourcy said. "We appreciate her taking action. . . . If she wasn't there, who would have done it?"

DeCourcy said Saurette's instinct to plunge into action and help save her son is a natural motherly instinct that "not everyone has."

Suarette said she still doesn't consider herself a hero.

"I'm just glad he's alive," Suarette said. "If this happened to any of my children, I would hope someone would do the same."

DeCourcy said she and her son bought Suarette a silver bracelet with a life preserver symbol on it, in an attempt to show their gratitude.

Suarette has been working in the Watson School cafeteria for about five years, and was trained in CPR last year. This was the first time she has ever performed the Heimlich maneuver.


Not only did this incident highlight Suarette's competence in CPR, DeCourcy said, but it also led to an unlikely friendship.

"Before, [Suarette] was just a lunch lady to my son, and now they have a special bond," DeCourcy said. "We are definitely grateful, and sometimes, with things like this, you just can't put the feelings into words."

Suarette said she regarded Hernandez, whom she described as a nice and quiet kid, as a best friend now.

"I'll only be feeding him apple sauce now for a very long time," she said. "And if he gets nachos, I'll be crushing them up."

Trisha Thadani can be reached at trisha.thadani@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @TrishaThadani.