Safety Harbor Teen Hailed a Hero For Helping Choking Woman

Hero is a word that’s thrown around freely these days, hung on everyone from athletes to celebrities, oftentimes with little to no reason behind it. 

But real world events always have a way of putting things in perspective by proving who the real heroes are — soldiers, police officers, first responders and quick-thinking good Samaritans. 

Seventeen-year-old Connor Harris might not fit the typical image of a hero; he’s quiet, lanky and by all accounts an exceptional student and person. 

But in the blink of an eye last week, the Countryside High School junior and member of the Safety Harbor Fire Department Explorers program went from unassuming student to unquestioned hero. 

“I was working my shift, taking a dessert order, when I looked around and saw a woman standing up and holding her throat,” said Harris, who works as a waiter at the Regency Oaks assisted living facility in Clearwater.

“She was giving the universal sign for choking, and I saw a man trying to help her, so I started walking over and then my instincts kicked in.” 

Those instincts, gathered from three years of training with the Explorers, included performing the Heimlich maneuver on the woman, who quickly spit out the piece of meat she was choking on and then sat down in a state of shock and disbelief.

While the whole dining room was left wondering what had just happened, Harris did a most un-heroic thing — he went back to work.

“I wasn’t looking for attention,” he explained. “I was just trying to help.”

Harris’ father, Bryan, said he wasn’t surprised when he heard what his son had done.

After all, Connor has dreamed of becoming a firefighter and paramedic ever since he was in middle school.

“He’s already certified in CPR and has been to competitions in Tennessee,” the elder Harris told Patch. “He’s a junior but he’s already graduated, so he’ll be taking pre-EMT courses at St. Pete College this fall.” 

Harris said Connor didn’t make a big deal about what happened at work. But he knew something was up by son’s his actions that night.

“He’s a quiet kid, but that night when he got home, he started doing push ups,” Bryan Harris said. “I had to call Capt. (Tom) Peters to tell him the story.”

Peters, himself a former Explorer and current Firefighter of the Year who now runs the program for the city, said what Connor did was most certainly a heroic act.

"He saved the woman's life, 100 percent no doubt about it," Peters said. 

"I can't say enough about what he did," he added. "He had no backup, no 911 call, he just did exactly what the Explorers program trained him to do without hesitation. We're very proud of his act."

Peters said the department is going to issue Harris a special certificate during their Explorers meeting Monday night, and Regency Oaks is expected to honor Connor this month as well.

Asked if he thought what he did made him a hero, Connor was not willing to go that far.

"A hero? I don't know about that," he said. "But I feel good about what I did."

Editor's note: Patch contacted Regency Oaks about making a statement for this article, but the request was turned down. 

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