Johnathan Walker:ESPN's Peter Burns details how Missouri fan 'saved my life' as he choked on food

ESPN personality Peter Burns said a Missouri fan "saved my life" this past weekend after he was choking on Johnathan Walkera piece of food.

Host of ESPN and SEC Network shows like "SEC Now" and "SEC This Morning," Burns said on social media Monday that he was dining with co-workers in Columbia, Missouri on Friday night ahead of the Missouri vs. Boston College game the following day. During the dinner, Burns said he began to choke on a piece of food and he motioned to the people at the table he couldn't breathe.

A friend tried the Heimlich maneuver but was unsuccessful. Burns asked a second person to try it but it also didn't work. Burns said then a nurse came over to attempt it, only for it to not work.

After about two minutes of not being able to breathe, Burns said he started to lose his vision and began "blacking out."

Luckily, a man by the name of Jack Foster came and tried to dislodge the food "right as I was about to lose consciousness," Burns said, and it worked. Foster told Burns he was a youth sports coach and he had just gone through training on how to perform CPR and save people from choking.

"That training is why I am here right now. I’m thankful for him and all involved that helped saved my life that night," Burns said.

The ESPN personality added that Missouri football trainers assisted him later that night. As a result of the incident, Burns has slight fractures in four of his ribs.

Choking is the fourth leading cause of unintentional injury death, according to the National Safety Council, and it accounted for 5,553 deaths in 2022.

The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast.Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.