Daily Herald Report: Coroner cheats death?

As reported in the Daily Herald on August 21, 2020 by Charles Keeshan and Susan Sarkauskas:

DuPage County Coroner Richard Jorgensen saved himself a bit of work last week.

According to DuPage County Circuit Court Clerk Chris Kachiroubas, Jorgensen -- a surgeon -- responded "in a New York second" to a man in distress Aug. 15 at a restaurant.

Jorgensen and Kachiroubas were at an informal monthly political lunch when a man began to flail about and stand up.

The coroner grabbed him, sat him down and performed the Heimlich maneuver several times, dislodging a piece of meat from the man's throat.

"The Doctor Richard Jorgensen may have cheated the Coroner Richard Jorgensen," Kachiroubas said at a county board committee meeting Tuesday.

"That was pretty crazy," Jorgensen told us.

He was in medical school about the time the Heimlich maneuver became well-known and learned it there. He has performed it several times since, he said. As a med student, he taught it to his parents -- and shortly thereafter, his father used it to save his mother.

"Everyone should know the Heimlich," he said.

Why put the guy in a chair? Because he was big and tall. "I was concerned if he passed out," Jorgensen said.

"I was just blessed to be in the right place at the right time," he added.

And out of curiosity, he looked up how many people died in DuPage County last year from choking on food: seven.