Gov. Chris Sununu saves a choking contestant at Hampton Beach Lobster Roll Eating Competition

By Arielle Mitropoulos

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    HAMPTON, New Hampshire (WMUR) — New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu sprang into action Sunday after a contestant at the Hampton Beach Lobster Roll Eating Competition began to choke.

“The gentleman at the far end, who I was kind of watching — I glanced over, I could tell very quickly, he took, took a pause — he was having trouble getting something down,” Sununu told WMUR-TV.

The contestant, Christian Moreno, began to signal for help, tapping on his chest and looking to get the stuck piece of lobster out of his windpipe as he began to struggle to breathe.

“I started saying, ‘He’s choking, he’s choking,’ and I could tell people weren’t responding. So I just moved forward and immediately started to kind of give him the Heimlich,” Sununu said.

In the midst of the chaos, Sununu jumped in, moving to give Moreno four or five compressions before first responders took over and helped free the stuck piece of lobster.

“It was crazy because it wasn’t so much the jumping in and doing it — I mean, that was wild in itself — but there was so much commotion,” Sununu said, adding that as soon as Moreno’s windpipe and throat were clear, he went right back to eating.

“He went right back to the contest, which I couldn’t believe. He ate another seven lobster rolls after that,” Sununu said. “Right down the gullet.”

Moreno said that this was his first eating competition.

“Lo and behold, the governor was the first one to notice what was actually happening,” Moreno said. “(I) was just kind of like, ‘All right, like, don’t freak out. You’re gonna, like, you’re gonna get this out, and you’re gonna keep going.'”

It was not until after he put his glasses back on following the conclusion of the competition when he said he realized it was the governor who had saved him.

“My counter came up to me and, like, made a joke. And was like, ‘Oh, like, I bet nobody else can say that they’ve gotten the Heimlich from the governor before.’ And I looked at him, was just like, that was, that was the governor?” Moreno said.

Moreno said that he is grateful as he realizes that this situation could have been much worse. However, he said that he is determined to be back next year.

“I will be there for my redemption, 100%,” Moreno said.

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