On Saturday Jan. 13, Officer Chad Stevens was driving along eastbound I-20 when he encountered a driver in distress.
"I noticed a car in the left-hand lane that was kind of impeding traffic, had its hazards on, swerving to the left and the right," Officer Stevens tells KRLD news. "So, you know, I thought it was odd driving behavior, so I slowed down."
It turns out that the driver, Samantha Cauley of Eastland, was choking on a piece of gum and was desperately trying to find a police officer to flag down.
"I (saw) a black vehicle come on with sirens at the top," recalls Cauley. "And I was like, 'Oh, thank god that's an officer.' And I mean at this time, it was like really hard to breathe.
"I drove up beside him and through the window -- I couldn't even see, my vision was so blurry to roll my window down -- and I was just hoping that he could see me waving at him and pointing out my throat," Cauley continued, "and he immediately caught on."
"I could tell that there was some kind of distress with the driving behavior," says Stevens. "It didn't look like an impaired driver, didn't look like someone breaking a normal traffic infraction; this was something different."
Mansfield Police Department
Cauley inadvertently swallowed the gum after becoming startled while driving along eastbound I-20, and it slowly cut off her ability to breathe.
"I just remember as long as I stay calm and reserve as much oxygen as I can to be able to pull over, I'll be okay," says Cauley.
Stevens put on his emergency lights so that they could safely pull over onto the narrow left shoulder, and Cauley darted over to him, indicating that she was choking.
Stevens immediately performed the Heimlich maneuver and dislodged the gum from Samantha's throat.
"I think it was approximately three or four sternum thrusts," says Stevens.
Bodycam footage shows that it took about ten seconds.
"All the oxygen came back to my head and I ... was about to pass out," says Cauley. "So he sat me down."
Stevens says Cauley was well enough to continue on her way home to Eastland.
He says, "I said, 'Can I get you some medical attention, at least let them check you out?' And she said, 'I'm trying to get home, I just really want to get home.'"
Cauley considers Stevens a hero.
"The love that I have for him for giving me another chance at life with my two kids is... something I couldn't even express," Cauley says.
Stevens disagrees with the notion that he's a hero.
"I was doing my job," says Stevens. "I was in my official capacity. I was in the right place at the right time. I think that's what all these officers here in Mansfield and statewide (and) nationwide would do if they came upon the same incident that I did."
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