Teen Saves Choking Teacher

A 15-year-old in Southern California who hopes to become a firefighter saved his English teacher's life with quick thinking, using the Heimlich maneuver when she was choking on an almond.

Judy Rader said she popped a few of the nuts into her mouth at the start of Wednesday's third period class at Cypress High School, south of Los Angeles.

Freshman Sam Barrera sprang into action after she started hopping up and down and gasping.

The teen wrapped his arms around her from behind and squeezed hard, dislodging the nut. He learned the lifesaving technique in an online health course.

For the effort, the teacher rewarded Barrera with a big hug of her own.

Asked if she has anything else in mind for Barrera -- like a good grade, perhaps, Rader told CBS News, "I don't have to worry about giving him a good grade, because he's already a good student."

And she laughed as she told co-anchor Chris Wragge on The Early Show Saturday Edition she may have an "A" in store for Barrera now -- he's been earning a "B" so far.

Rader says this sort of thing has happened to her "three or four times, and always while I am eating. I think I have a small/narrow esophagus, and I tend to eat and talk at the same time.

"Every time, I've been saved by the Heimlich -- I've never had to do it on myself -- someone has always been there."

She recalled for Wragge that she "was panicking because, when you can't breathe, you don't know what to do. The whole class saw the fear in my eyes, so - no one knew what to do. Sam was the only one who seemed to have a level head. Je just got ujp and walked over and started doing it. That's how easily he did it."

Noting that Barrera wants to be a fireman, Rader says, "This is a good start saving lives."

Has she learned anything from this?

"Yes, maybe to chew my almonds a little better!" Rader told CBS News.

Barrera told CBS News he "felt really good but at first, because all the adrenaline rush got me though it, but afterwards, I went to get a glass of water and started shaking and turned pale. I wasn't thinking when I did i -t- I just reacted. Afterwards, I felt tired and it hit me what had happened."

When he got back from getting the water, Barrera, says, his classmates "clapped their hands and called me a hero," and they still do when he walks the halls school.

Does he feel like one?

"Yeah, it makes me smile."