Austin Nelson has had a rough few months. First, the Columbia Falls Junior High School eighth-grader broke his leg motocross racing and had to wear a cast up to his hip. Then last week, he nearly blacked out after choking while eating breakfast at the school.

Fortunately, he has a guardian angel in teacher Leslie DiMaio. Nelson was finishing up the last few chews of his “pancake on a stick” — a pancake with sausage in the middle — when a piece of got stuck in his braces. It then fell down his mouth and into his windpipe.

Nelson tried to take a drink of milk but couldn’t breathe, so he ran halfway across the school cafeteria to DiMaio for help.

“He whacks me on the arm, and his face was beet red,” DiMaio recalled.

She immediately saw he was choking and gave him the Heimlich maneuver. It took three or four thrusts before the food was dislodged and Nelson could breath again. Nelson said he was starting to see white before DiMaio helped him.

DiMaio called Nelson’s mother and told her what had happened. Later that day, they sent DiMaio flowers.

DiMaio teaches seventh-grade literature and language but is also a cafeteria monitor in the mornings. She said she learned the Heimlich maneuver during a first aid class she took years ago.

“I’m signing up for a refresher,” she said.