Westwood Middle Schooler Saves Mother's Life On Day He Learns Heimlich Maneuver

Ramin Eshaghi doesn’t consider himself a hero.

But the Westwood 6th grader is being lauded for his lightning-fast and possibly life-saving actions after performing the Heimlich Maneuver on his mother just hours after learning the move at school.

Ramin was doing his homework in the kitchen of the family's Westwood home on March 10 when he realized something was terribly wrong with his mother, Maryam Jahansouz. She'd suddenly started gasping for air, her face was turning blue and she was flailing her arms. Jahansouz was choking and in serious peril.

“I was making dinner and was munching on some almonds, but one of them got stuck in my throat,” said Jahansouz, a dentist. “I tried to cough but couldn't. I started to panic and threw myself against the sink to try to put pressure on my abdomen and dislodge it, but it didn't work.”

Instead of panicking, though, Ramin put his lesson from health class that day into action. He first called 911, then stood behind his mother, exerting “four or five thrusts” when, suddenly, the almond popped out.

By the time the police arrived  -- “in about two minutes,” Ramin said -- his mother had begun breathing normally.

“I only did what I had to do,” said Ramin, who is in sixth grade at . “I had to make a split second decision. Should I leave my mother alone and try to get help? Or should I try to save her? It was very stressful, but I guess I made the right choice.”

Jahansouz said she was amazed that her son knew what to do.

“Adults sometimes face these situations and don’t know how to react. But Ramin had his act together,” she said. “I am so proud. He saved my life.”

Gina Vintalore, Ramin’s health and physical education teacher said she was greeted at school the next day by an email from Ramin’s mother.

“In her email, she thanked me for teaching her son the Heimlich, and went on to tell me what happened,” said Vintalore. “I was shocked. When I saw Ramin in class, he was still a little shaken up and was really quite traumatized about it all, but I told him it’s normal to feel so much emotion after such an incredible event.

“In all my 20 years of teaching, I’ve had students do wonderful things in the community, etc., but this was truly amazing,” Vintalore said. “I’m so proud of him. These are the kinds of things that keep me as a teacher doing what I’m doing.”

Ramin still is having difficulty understanding the impact of what happened and what could have been.

"I keep thinking about how scared my little sister was and how everything happened so fast," Ramin said, adding that he “would do it all again a million times if it meant saving someone’s life.”

“People are saying I’m a hero, but I don’t want to show off,” he said. “I just did what I had to do.”