New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu came to the aid of a contestant at the Hampton Beach Lobster Roll Eating Competition who began to choke.

The Republican governor performed the Heimlich maneuver on a man choking on a lobster roll.

“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. 

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu came to the aid of a contestant choking on a lobster roll at a seafood festival eating contest on Sunday — using the Heimlich maneuver after the man signaled for help. https://t.co/x62TTPfBgl

— ABC News (@ABC) September 9, 2024

WMUR reports:

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.”

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Per ABC News:

Moreno, who didn’t have his glasses on, wasn’t aware it was the governor who had helped save 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 recovered and went back to the contest. He didn’t win, but he did consume nine lobster rolls in all.