ANSONIA – A 20-year employee of Ansonia Public Schools saved the life of a kindergarten student, who was choking on a piece of meat during lunch in the John G. Prendergast School cafeteria in mid-March.
For her heroic act, Kimberlee Martin was presented with a certificate of appreciation and a bouquet of flowers by the Board of Education during its monthly meeting Wednesday night in City Hall.
“Words cannot describe how proud we are of Mrs. Martin and how thankful we are for her quick action,” Dr. Carol Merlone, Superintendent of Schools, said.
Martin, a kindergarten aide assigned to Kathleen Weitzler’s class, was supervising the students during lunch March 16.
“It was just another day in the cafeteria,” she recalled. The lunch menu included popcorn chicken nuggets that day. She saw that one of her students, Liam Angeski, was in distress. “I saw that he was opening his mouth, but he wasn’t able to speak.”
She knelt down next to Liam, put her arms around his waist, and squeezed. “It was dislodged immediately,” she recalled.
A quiet boy, Liam didn’t cry at all and went with Martin to the nurse’s office. Liam’s parents were called, and he was taken to get checked out by a physician. Liam was found to be in very good health.
Prendergast School Principal Liz Nimons emailed her staff about the heroic act: “A shout out to Kim Martin, one of our kindergarten aides, who saw a student choking and gave him the Heimlich, which dislodged the item he was choking on. You are our hero and we are lucky to work with such awesome people.”
This is a press release from Ansonia Public Schools.
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