Pastor Brandon Stewart was visiting Cottonwood Alabama Mt Zion Church as a guest pastor.
In the middle of his sermon Lois Adams started choking. Initially he thought her coughing was just due to allergies or a cold, but he quickly realized this was a serious problem.
WTYV-TV reports what Lois had to say about it. “I was praising the Lord like everybody else but I had a piece of mint in my mouth because I get a dry mouth. I got choked on it. And I went to coughing and a little piece of it reckon went down my throat and I couldn’t breathe. Next thing I know somebody has me in the air.”
Brandon had jumped down from the pulpit, ran to Lois, performed the Heimlich maneuver, and with one thrust he cleared her airway. Within less than a minute she was OK so he returned to the pulpit to finish his sermon.
Both Stewart and Adams are taking this opportunity to emphasize the importance of everyone learning the Heimlich maneuver, highlighting its life-saving potential in an emergency situation. The incident only caused a brief disruption of the service and ended on a positive note with Adams expressing her gratitude for the pastor’s life-saving action.
Reflecting on the experience, Stewart remains humble, and naturally attributes the outcome to divine intervention. Although he’s just , he says he’ll be sticking around for as long as he’s needed.