At about 2:30 p.m. on July 1, Custody Deputy Christopher Martinez helped an inmate who was choking. Martinez was working in the Main Jail when he observed an inmate holding a piece of bread and pointing toward his throat.
Martinez immediately recognized the inmate was choking on the bread he had been eating, and he began to provide life-saving measures.
Martinez quickly removed the inmate from his housing area, turned the inmate around and began to perform abdominal thrusts. After eight abdominal thrusts, the bread dislodged from the inmate’s throat and he began to breathe without any issues.
The inmate was examined by a Wellpath nurse practitioner and did not need further medical treatment.
Martinez’s quick reactions to this emergency likely saved the inmate’s life.
— Kelly Hoover for Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office.