Sununu to the rescunu!
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu performed the Heimlich maneuver on a choking contestant at a lobster roll-eating competition this weekend — and the man impressively went on to scarf down seven more rolls.
Video from the Hampton Beach Lobster Roll Eating Competition shows one of the contestants on stage, Christian Moreno, start to signal that his airway was obstructed, but nobody around him seems to catch on.
Christian Moreno was choking on a lobster roll when New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu rushed over to help. Kateri Coffey via AP
The four-term Republican governor administered the Heimlich maneuver until EMTs arrived. Portsmouth Herald -USA TODAY NETWORKSuddenly, Sununu appears from backstage like an apparition, wrapping his arms around Moreno and lifting him into the air as he performs several abdominal thrusts before EMTs could rush in and finish the job.
“I started saying, ‘He’s choking, he’s choking,’ and I could tell people weren’t responding. So I just moved forward and immediately started to kind of give him the Heimlich,” Sununu told local outlet WMUR.
Once the rogue bit of meat was dislodged from his windpipe, Moreno soldiered on unfazed, the spirit of competition flowing through him like drawn butter.
New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu performs the Heimlich Maneuver on Lobster Roll eating contestant Christian Moreno. Portsmouth Herald -USA TODAY NETWORK
Christian Moreno begins to choke on a piece of lobster. Kateri Coffey via AP
“He went right back to the contest, which I couldn’t believe. He ate another seven lobster rolls after that,” Sununu said. “Right down the gullet.”
Moreno admitted he had no idea his fast-thinking rescuer was the four-term Republican at the time.
“Lo and behold, the governor was the first one to notice what was actually happening,” Moreno told the outlet.
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu reenacts his Heimlich maneuver with contestant Christian Moreno after the event. Christian Moreno“[I] was just kind of like, ‘All right, like, don’t freak out. You’re gonna, like, you’re gonna get this out, and you’re gonna keep going.'”
He said his lobster roll counter eventually clued him in.
“My counter came up to me and, like, made a joke. And was like, ‘Oh, like, I bet nobody else can say that they’ve gotten the Heimlich from the governor before.’ And I looked at him, was just like, that was, that was the governor?” Moreno said.
First place went to Chris Thurston, of Somersworth, who gobbled up a dozen lobster rolls. He took home the Lobster Roll Champion Belt, the top prize of $600 — and hopefully, a side of Tums.
Although it was his first foray into the world of eating competitions, Moreno said it wouldn’t be his last.
“I will be there for my redemption, 100%,” he said.
Sununu’s act of heroism came just a day after his mother, Nancy Hayes Sununu, a former first lady of New Hampshire, passed away at age 85. Her husband, Gov. John H. Sununu, was himself a three-term Granite State governor from 1983-1989.
In July, Chris Sununu announced he would not seek reelection.
“Could I win again? Of course. But it’s [public] service, and someone else needs to kind of take the mantle,” he said in June.
