Briefly in the News

A Newport Beach woman came to the rescue of a man choking on his food

while dining at the Newport Beach Tennis Club Friday evening.

“Basically, she saved his life,” Newport Beach Fire Capt. David Mais

said.

By the time firefighters and paramedics rushed to the scene, Ren

Newcomb, 73, of Newport Beach, could breath on his own, Mais said.

Much of the credit belongs to Marney Thompson of Newport Beach, a

nurse who was planning to leave the club at 7 p.m. when a waitress she

knew ran up to her pleading for help.

“I just hopped to and ran around the corner [to the restaurant],” she

said.

She grabbed Newcomb, who was slumped over on the table, she said.

“He had turned absolutely purple and his lips were black,” she said.

After performing a few Heimlich maneuvers, she laid him on the floor

and began CPR, she said.

“His wife was screaming, ‘Oh, he’s dead, he’s dead!,’ ” she said.

But Thompson kept her cool, her 22 years of training serving her well,

she said.

“I was in nurse mode,” she said. “You’re just not emotional at all at

the time.”

Only after the paramedics took Newcomb away did tears come to her

eyes, she said.

Newcomb remains in stable condition at Hoag Hospital, Newport Beach

paramedic Glenn White said.

While everyone applauded her courageous effort, Thompson thinks a

higher power guided her that day.

“It was like God put me there,” she said. “It made me feel very, very

humble.”

-- Eron Ben-Yehuda