JEDDAH: Late on Wednesday night, a video went viral on Twitter of an accident at Al-Farabi School in Tabuk showing a teacher, Naif Al-Bluwi, saving a student who accidentally swallowed a piece of plastic.
“The accident occurred on Tuesday,” Al-Bluwi told Arab News. “As deputy principal, it’s my job to keep a lookout for the students,” he said. “I saw a group of students leaving their classroom, including the student in question. They were loudly calling for help and I was startled by the state the choking student was in. He looked to be in a very dire state, breathless and voiceless, and I could see his eyes widening as his situation grew worse.”
Al-Bluwi said he was honored to have been able to save the student. “The child was in a terrible, difficult state. I tried my best to calm myself enough to handle the situation. I also tried to calm the student, but as he was nearly unconscious I let instinct take over. I did what anyone would’ve done in this situation, it’s just the right thing to do.”Al-Bluwi hadn’t had prior medical training — he did what he’d watched rescuers do on awareness clips and first-aid videos on Instagram and YouTube. “I’m not a specialist nor have I any certifications, and it was all spontaneous. Thankfully, the piece came out of his throat and I cleared the space around him enough so he could catch his breath.
بعد عناية الله الأستاذ /نايف خليف البلوي ينقذ حياة طالب بأحدى مدارس منطقة تبوك تعرض لانسداد مجرى التنفس لابتلاعه قطعة بلاستيك بطريق الخطأ pic.twitter.com/jlooUHj2LW
— عبدالله البلوي (@Abu_muhammad778) February 14, 2018
“I was speechless, and I repeatedly watched the video later on, when he kissed the top of my head. I didn’t expect anything in return, but it moved me deeply. Later on one of the teachers told me he’d asked the student why he did that right after coming to, and the student said: because he saved my life. And I think that was more gratifying than any reward or thanks I would ever receive.”
