‘She’s a hero to me’ District 3 elementary school teacher credited with saving student’s life

EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) -- A parent at Widefield School District 3 hails an elementary school teacher as a hero after saving her daughter's life.

Friday, Jasmine Luna said her daughter's teacher saved her eight-year-old's life after performing the Heimlich maneuver.

"She was like, mom, I'm fine. I'm fine, mom," Luna recalls after reuniting with her daughter, Lyla, after school. "We went to cheer practice right after."

Luna's 8-year-old daughter really is fine. A remarkable feat, considering what happened at Sunrise Elementary School on Thursday.

"She had been choking in class during snack time."

Lyla was eating a fruit roll-up when it got caught in her throat. That's when her third-grade teacher, Jessica Cordes, sprung into action.

"She was in distress pretty quickly," Cordes recounts. "I saw that it was deep in her throat and immediately started to do the Heimlich and pushing on her stomach."

Cordes had taken Lyla to the hallway, doing the thrusts, while trying not to scare the other kids.

"It seemed to be working, and she caught her breath again," Cordes said with a smile.

Parents put a lot of trust in their kid's teachers, and perhaps nobody trust's their child teacher as much as Luna trusts Cordes.

"If she didn't act quickly the way she did, I don't know if my daughter would have been here," Luna says, fighting back tears. "I know that I can trust her to protect my daughter from anything."

Teachers in Colorado are not required to know how to do the Heimlich maneuver. Only one staff member in the building needs to be CPR certified as well.

Luna says this is the first time Lyla's ever had any sort of choking incident. But lucky for her, Cordes works at Sunrise.