A simple gift card may have ultimately saved the life of a P.F. Chang’s patron in Warrington. Police officer Sean McCoy was lunching at the chain restaurant with his wife when an emergency interrupted their meal. Jon Campisi covered the public servant’s quick-thinking actions in the Lower Moreland Patch.

Officer Sean McCoy, 40, was about to dig into a newly arrived plate of apps when he was tapped on the arm by an elderly, unknown woman at a nearby table.

The fellow patron stood next to the McCoy’s table with a napkin over her mouth, silently indicating some sort of distress.

McCoy was somewhat perplexed by the behavior, recognizing it as trouble but of an unclear nature.

Was she bleeding? he reportedly thought. Did she need something else?

McCoy’s wife quickly discerned that she, indeed did. She guessed aloud that the woman was choking, and the distressed victim nodded emphatically that she was.

The officer administered the Heimlich maneuver. After a few thrusts, McCoy had cleared the food item blocking her airway.

“Can you breathe?” he asked her.

“I think so,” she responded, finally able to speak.

The unidentified woman thanked Officer Sean McCoy and was placed into the care of EMT respondents who had arrived by that time.

“It’s one of those things you see on TV,” McCoy said, reflecting on what happened. “I was just happy to be there to be able to help.”

More on this heroic action is at the Lower Moreland Patch.