Taken from the Lawrence (Mass.) Eagle-Tribune, Nov. 8, 1994. MERRIMACK HOCKEY PLAYER SAVES HOOP PLAYER FROM CHOKING TO DEATH by Bill Burt Merrimack College senior Mike Nugent didn't have time to enjoy lunch. It was only 11:15 a.m. He was sitting alone. And class started in about 15 minutes. Nugent, a 6-foot-10 center on the basketball team, remembered his mouth being very dry. "It was early. There was hardly anybody in the cafeteria," recalled Nugent, of Plaistow, N.H. "I only got a sandwich because I was in a hurry. I took just one bite. That's all. It wouldn't go all the way down." Within a few seconds he started to pound his chest. When nothing happened, panic set in. Nugent bolted from his seat and sprinted toward the kitchen. "I couldn't breathe. And I couldn't talk either," explained Nugent. "I figured the lunch ladies would know what to do." Of course they did. They called for help. "I was in line, waiting for my lunch," remembered Steve McKenna, a sophomore defenseman on the Merrimack hockey team, one of only a handful of students in the cafeteria. "I saw Mike, who I know pretty well, run into the kitchen," McKenna said. "I knew something was wrong, and I heard them calling for help. So I ran back there." McKenna did what his mother, Registered Nurse Shirley McKenna, showed all her children to do under the same circumstance. He calmly grabbed Nugent from behind, as if he were a wrestler. Then he made a fist with one hand, and put his free hand over the fist. And he tugged twice under Nugent's rib cage. The gob of bread spewed out like a gun shot. A life was saved. "It may not have seemed like I was scared, but I was," said McKenna. "I was scared when I saw him run by. I was scared while I was giving him the Heimlich (maneuver). And I was scared afterward, too." Like a true hero, McKenna didn't hang around to be patted on the back. In fact, after making sure Nugent was OK, he went back to the cafeteria and then ate his lunch. It has been two weeks since, and a few of McKenna's friends found out about it yesterday. He did call his mother the next day, though. "She was happy," said McKenna. Nugent feels lucky. Not only was McKenna trained by a nurse who happens to be his mom, but he was one of only a handful of people on the Merrimack campus big enough, at 6-foot-8 (Yes, he's a hockey player), to handle him physically. "If he wasn't there, I'd probably be dead," said Nugent. "Steve saved my life." Nugent caught up with McKenna several hours after the incident and told him the same thing. "He came up to me in the locker room later that day and thanked me for saving his life," said McKenna. "It kind of throws you when somebody says that to you. It still does when I think about it." Nugent says eating since the incident has been a bit of a chore. He chews his food incessantly. And he eats with a friend. Nugent and McKenna ran into each other again last night at the Volpe Complex. Besides exchanging high fives, they didn't say too much. They didn't have to. "It's sort of weird," said McKenna. "I see him now and I think, 'Wow! It's great to see him...Alive.'" (end) Now, you UNH fans can't cheer against the guy this weekend after reading that, can you? :-) McKenna, the biggest defenseman in Hockey East, is one half of the Warriors' "Twin Towers" on D with 6-5 John Jakopin and picked up his first point of the season Saturday with an assist in Merrimack's 4-3 win at Providence. --- --- Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] Cabletron Systems, Inc. *HMM* 11/13/93