ESPN Host: Missouri Fan 'Saved My Life'

An ESPN host is crediting a Missouri football fan with saving his life through the Heimlich maneuver. In a social media thread, Peter Burns writes that he was eating at a restaurant in Columbia, Missouri, with colleagues on Friday, ahead of the following day's college game between Missouri and Boston College, reports USA Today. Burns began choking on a piece of food, and he says two friends and then a nurse all tried the Heimlich on him, with no success.

At around the two-minute mark—"right as I was about to lose consciousness"—a fan named Jack Foster finally succeeded in dislodging the food. Foster is a youth sports coach who recently had CPR and Heimlich training, per a post at Awful Announcing. "That training is why I am here right now," said Burns. "I'm thankful for him and all involved that helped saved my life that night." The National Safety Council counts choking as the fourth-leading cause of "unintentional injury death," with more than 5,500 fatalities in 2022. (More Heimlich maneuver stories.)