When a sixth-grade student started choking during class, Taylor Road Middle School teacher Ellie Dosch’s training launched her into action, Channel 2 Action News reported Thursday.

Dosch’s class was having snacks connected to a lesson on J.R.R. Tolkein’s “The Hobbit.” A student took a bite of a doughnut and began choking.

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“She was in a full-on panic, waving her arms, and it caught my attention,” Dosch told Channel 2.

Dosch, also a lacrosse coach at Chattahoochee High School, has extensive training in first aid and CPR. She ran to the student and performed the Heimlich maneuver on the girl until the doughnut dislodged and the girl could breathe again.

After the incident, the girl’s mother was called by the school nurse. When she saw the Johns Creek school’s number on her caller ID, she feared the worst, but was relieved when she arrived at the school and found her daughter safe.

“I put my arms around her and I was so glad she was better,” said the woman, who was identified as Marcy by Channel 2.

Marcy called Dosch the “teacher of the century” for helping her daughter.

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