‘I’m eternally grateful’: Woman thanks good Samaritan for saving brother’s life at restaurant

(CHESTERFIELD, Va. (WWBT/Gray News) - A Virginia woman is thanking the man who saved her brother’s life after he started choking on a piece of food during lunch on Tuesday.

For Amanda, the past few weeks have been an emotional whirlwind after her grandmother died on July 17.

“She meant everything to me,” she said. “She had dementia and the last two weeks she really started declining, but I know she’s in heaven.”

After attending her grandmother’s funeral on Tuesday, Amanda, who chose not to share her last name, and her loved ones went to grab lunch at an area Bonefish Grill.

“We went to have lunch and kind of celebrate her life and talk about memories of her,” she said.

Conversations were flowing across the table when suddenly screams were heard.

“I heard my brother’s wife say, ‘Jon’s choking,’” Amanda said.

Amanda said she got out of her seat to find her brother choking on a piece of food.

“Minutes felt like hours,” she said. “I tried to get underneath him, but I couldn’t lift him. He was just stiff as a board because he was having a seizure while choking.”

At that moment, Amanda said a man sitting inside the restaurant came to their rescue.

“He just lifted him out of nowhere and gave him the Heimlich maneuver,” she said. “There’s no way that he could’ve had the strength to do that for as long as he did it without God.”

The good Samaritan was identified as Tony Dean.

Dean said he was talking with his business partner that afternoon when he heard the screams and jumped into action.

“Something in me just said do the Heimlich maneuver, so I was able to get him off the floor and dislodged the piece of food in his throat,” he said.

Days later, the group reunited in a moment that meant the world to all involved.

“It just validated that I was doing the right thing at the right time,” Dean said. “I give all the honor to God for having a level of discernment to know someone was in distress and I was able to help them.”

Amanda says Dean is the family’s hero.

“I’m eternally grateful for Tony saving my brother’s life, a miracle,” she said.