Chapter 20
Before long, the new school year had arrived. Mary was now a junior and Matt was a freshman. Mark was starting middle school, Luke was in the 4th grade, John was in the second grade and Paul was starting kindergarten. The twins were 2 ½ years old.
Mary had decided that she wanted to major in Business in college, and she had started to send in college applications to colleges.
She was in the top of her class and was still on the swimming and tennis teams. She was involved in student government and was class president. She was active in the school choir as well.
At church, she was active in the youth group in addition to the church’s adult choir. After three years of piano lessons she had become quite good at playing.
Matt joined the high school newspaper staff as a reporter and a photographer. He also worked on the yearbook staff. He made the junior varsity basketball team and the track team in the spring.
He was writing small articles for local magazines and wrote some editorials for the San Francisco Tribune, giving the viewers a teenager’s point of view. Matt loved writing and he was quite good at it. He also found time to play the guitar and of course to date girls.
With the kids getting older and involved in more activities, Joe and Betty became busier and busier with sports, homework, music lessons and school activities. The twins were a handful all by themselves.
The school year flew by quickly. The annual KCK drive had continued to grow and branched out into suburbs of San Francisco. There were over 300 teenagers and 30 adults working on the project from September through December.
As more businesses got involved, they were able to help more kids. KCK had moved into a warehouse donated by a local business. They raised over five million and helped more than 100,000 children.
Soon, it was February 26th, two days before Matt’s 15th birthday, a day that he might never have seen, if God had not intervened. After track practice, Matt and a group of the other guys on the team went to a local diner to get something to eat.
Matt was eating a hamburger and was not paying attention to how fast he was eating. All of a sudden, he could not breathe. A piece of hamburger became in his throat, and was blocking his trachea. He tried to cough it up, but he could not. Matt started to panic.
He grabbed his throat and tried to get his friends’ attention. At first, they thought he was fooling around and they started laughing. By the time they realized he really could not breathe, Matt was really panicking. Nobody knew what to do.
Matt thought he was going to die. Everything seemed to be going in slow motion and he could not hear anything. Nobody was helping him.
A few minutes earlier, Joe was driving home and something inside him told him to turn his car around and head towards the diner. Joe sensed that something was wrong. When he got to the diner, he jumped out of his car, and ran inside. He saw a bunch of people standing around someone who appeared to be in some kind of trouble.
Joe pushed people aside and saw that the person in trouble was Matt and that he was choking. Quickly, Joe got behind Matt and started performing the Heimlich maneuver on him.
After several attempts, he was able to dislodge the meat and it came out of Matt’s mouth. Matt started gasping for air. Then he started crying, “I thought I was going to die, Joe. I thought I was going to die. I could not breathe and nobody knew what to do. I was so scared.”
Matt grabbed hold of Joe and started crying. “Thank you, Joe. You saved my life. I would have died if you hadn’t shown up when you did.” It was then, that Joe realized that God had directed him to the diner.
During the ride home, Matt did not say anything. He was still shook up and shaking like a leaf.
When they arrived home, Matt ran into the house. Betty and Mary were sitting in the family room and Betty asked Matt why he was home so early. Matt opened his mouth to talk, but no words came out.
Matt started shaking and then started crying hysterically. Between sobs, he told his mom what had happened at the diner. Joe filled them in on the details. Betty thought it might be a good idea to take Matt to the Emergency Room to have him checked out by the doctor.
The doctor told Betty that there was nothing wrong with Matt physically, but emotionally, he was a total wreck. After his near death experience, Matt was so shook up by it, that he was having a panic attack.
The doctor tried to give Matt a sedative to calm him down, but Matt refused to take the pill. He was afraid he would choke on it too, so the doctor gave Matt the sedative by injection. Once they got home, Betty got Matt to lie down and after sitting with him for thirty minutes, and reassuring him, Matt finally dozed off to sleep.
Betty had been so busy taking Matt to the hospital that she did not even think about the fact that her son almost died. When it finally hit her, she asked Mary to get dinner started while she talked to Joe.
She gave Joe a hug and thanked him for being there when Matt needed him. “I am not the one you should thank,” said Joe. “It was God who directed me to the diner. I was going the opposite direction, when something inside me told me to turn around and drive to the diner. I didn’t even know that Matt was there.”
Betty sat down next to Joe, took his hands in hers, and said; “Joe, after my husband left me and the children three years ago, I was scared to death. I did not know how I was going to support my children. I prayed to God for a miracle. Well Joe, God heard me and answered my prayers. He sent you to us.
You took us into your home and gave us hope again. You saved my life as well as the twins. Paul might not have made it, if you had not gotten him to the hospital with his broken leg. Now, you have saved Matt’s life as well.
I know that God had a hand in this, but it was you with your decisions and actions that made the difference in our lives. There is no way that I will ever be able to thank you enough for what you have done for my family. I know that you are not related to us by blood, but I love you like a son and always will.
I’m sure that your parents are looking down on you now and are more proud of you that any parent could be.” Joe thanked her and then Betty gave Joe a big hug and held him for a long time.
Matt was still affected by his near death experience for the next several days. He did not want to celebrate his birthday two days later. He would only eat soft foods like mashed potatoes and applesauce. He was fearful that he might choke again. He was afraid to go to sleep, because he was afraid that he would not wake up again. His mother had to mash up sedatives in his food so that he could sleep at night.
Matt had some sessions with a psychologist to help him deal with his fears. The doctor suggested that Matt get involved with a project that would occupy his time so that he was not thinking of death all of the time.
Matt told Joe that he wanted to talk with the California state government about making restaurants safer for the customers.
Joe was able to pull a few strings and he got Matt a chance to speak to the California Senate. Matt started preparing his speech. He was not nervous, because this was something that meant a lot to him personally.
The day finally arrived. Matt was dressed in his best suit, and was accompanied by his mother and Joe.
Matt got up to address the senate and told them that they needed to make a law that required every employee working in public eating establishment to become certified in CPR, and the Heimlich Maneuver. This law should include not only restaurants, but schools, hospitals, and nursing homes as well. It should include every single establishment that served food to customers.
Matt had many statistics with him, stating the number of people who had choked on food in the past several years and how many had died, because nobody knew how to help them.
One of the senators said that a law was not necessary, because it was something that the employers should do automatically. This made Matt quite angr
y. Matt started into a tirade. “About a month ago, I was at a diner in San Francisco with some of my friends after track practice. I was talking and eating, and a piece of hamburger got caught in my throat blocking my trachea. I could not cough it up, and I could not talk, or breathe.
When I finally got my friends’ attention, none of them knew what to do. None of the employees knew what to do either. I started to panic. I thought I was going to die.
Everybody was standing around watching me, feeling helpless”. Matt proceeded to describe his horrifying ordeal in graphic detail. “If Joe had not arrived when he did and performed the Heimlich maneuver on me, I would not be addressing you here today.”
As a few of the senators were talking among themselves, Matt decided to keep the momentum going and made it much more personal for them.
“This time, it was me. What would happen if it were your son or daughter, what if it was your mother or father? What if it was your spouse who was choking to death, or even you? Are you willing to take the chance that the staff serving them or you would know what to do? Please, listen to me. The time to act is now. Write this bill before even one more person has to die needlessly. Thank you.”
When Matt sat down, he got a standing ovation and a number of senators told him that they would write the bill that afternoon and they promised Matt that it would be passed.
A month later, Matt was invited to the state capitol to watch the governor sign the ‘Matt Rogers Bill’ into law. Soon, similar laws were popping up across the rest of the country.
The governor shook Matt’s hand and told him to never stop fighting for what he believed in.
Matt also convinced the state school system to start teaching the Heimlich maneuver as early as elementary school and start teaching CPR in high school.