Teen Saves Mother With Help From 911

It was a scene straight out of the television show “Rescue 911.”

A 14-year-old Ventura girl stopped her mother from choking on a piece of banana Thursday morning when a fire dispatcher instructed the teen-ager on how to employ a life-saving maneuver over the phone, authorities said.

A distraught Nicole Hoppes performed the Heimlich maneuver when her 35-year-old mother Tamara Vega started choking and began slipping into unconsciousness after vomiting at their South Anne Street home.

“I was seeing stars and the room was spinning and then everything started to go dark,” Vega said. “[Nicole is] my hero, I’m alive today because of her. . . . If she wouldn’t have talked to the 911 operator I probably would have choked to death.”

Hoppes and Vega met with Fire Department dispatcher Karen Hartwell, 31, Friday to thank her for the life-saving assistance.

Hartwell said she was just doing her job. But Annette Allen, communications supervisor, described Hartwell’s action as a dramatic illustration of emergency medical dispatching, the name given to the system of providing instructions over the phone in life-threatening situations.

In a case of life imitating art, the program “Rescue 911” provided the impetus for more local agencies to put the system in place about three years ago, Allen said.

“When ‘Rescue 911’ started, about 30% of communication centers were doing EMD, now about 60% are doing it,” she said.