TV’s Trisha saved my life
Published: March 19, 2005
She is always rushing to the rescue of her guests - whether it be trying to salvage broken relationships or reuniting long lost relatives.
But chat show queen Trisha Goddard has proved that her ‘life saving’ skills stretch far beyond the television studio when she leapt to the aid of a Norfolk grandmother and saved her from choking to death.
What started off as a pleasant meal with colleagues turned into a nightmare for Linda Johnson who got a piece of sirloin steak stuck in her throat and was unable to breathe, eventually turning blue.
Luckily, just a few tables away at the Merchants of Colegate in Norwich, Trisha, 47, was having a business dinner when she noticed Mrs Johnson’s plight.
Mrs Johnson explained: “I was out with four colleagues and we were laughing and eating some really good food when a piece of steak got stuck in my windpipe. It was a few seconds before I realised what was happening. I kept swallowing but it didn’t work and then I had a sip of wine but it came out again. I think one of my friends thought, because it was red, it was blood and she started shouting for help.”
Saved her from choking
Trisha jumped out of her chair, pushed Mrs Johnson’s table out of the way and performed the Heimlich manoeuvre three times to force the steak up out of her airway.
“Trisha turned me round and I felt her hands coming around my rib cage and she started to do the manoeuvre. I was expecting it to pop out but instead I just swallowed it,” added Mrs Johnson, who works at Hellesdon Library.
“She was very natural and there were no airs and graces. I was very impressed and I can only thank her for being there. She hugged me then released me but then I hugged her. Two other people jumped up to help but I just remember Trisha at my side.”
The mother of two, who also runs a bed and breakfast with her husband Richard, was unable to finish her main meal but had a coffee and some dessert.
The television star has played down her act of heroism by saying she “just did what I had to do”.
“To be honest I totally forgot about it when I got home. I even forget to tell my husband,” she said. “I was trained in first aid as an airline steward and I have always kept my first aid skills up.”
The celebrity said she had been enjoying a business dinner of seabass at the restaurant on Wednesday with Malcolm Allsop, managing director of her company Town House TV Productions and colleague Jezz Wright.
She said: “I knew what it was because she could not talk or breathe in or out and her eyes had started to extend so I did the Heimlich manoeuvre.
“It had gone down completely blocking her windpipe but after three times I managed to dislodge the food. Then she started breathing and I gave her a bit of a hug. She could have died.
“It’s not something anyone should do. You have got to know where to put your hands otherwise you might injure someone.”
But the former Anglia TV presenter said Mrs Johnson was not the first person she had saved.
On her honeymoon in Italy with her husband Peter Gianfrancesco, she saved a heroin addict’s life who had taken an overdose and stopped breathing.
She revived a lady in Earlham Park who had collapsed and three years ago stopped a disabled person choking to death in a park in Crawley.
She has even resuscitated people back stage on the Trisha Show.
And as an air stewardess she saved four lives by performing cardiopulminary-resuscitation.
Chanelle Grace, the 25-year-old manager of Merchants of Colegate, said: “We were going to call an ambulance but it was all over very quickly. It did not last longer than five to 10 seconds. Trisha saved her life. I knew Trisha knew what she was doing otherwise I would not have let her do it.”
She added she was First Aid trained and would have performed the same manoeuvre but Trisha got to the table first.
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