Stanley woman saves choking Olive Garden employee
Madeline Hare hoped to never need to use the Heimlich maneuver, but she sprang into action when she knew her skills could save a life.
Hare, a CaroMont Health nurse assistant who will graduate from Gaston College’s licensed practical nurse program on Tuesday, was dining at Olive Garden in Gastonia with six of her fellow students and clinical nursing instructor Joyce Floyd on July 22. The team was celebrating the conclusion of a two-month clinical rotation at Stanley Total Living Center.
An Olive Garden employee rushed to the table and asked Floyd for help, as an employee in the kitchen was choking and couldn’t breathe.
COVID percent positive rate falls in Gaston County NC gastongazette.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from gastongazette.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Both the spread and severity of COVID-19 in Gaston County is continuing to slow as health leaders said last week a total of five people died due to the virus.
Gaston s total COVID-19 death toll to date reached 391 on Friday, up from 386 the week prior.
Since mid-October COVID-19 has claimed an average of more than two Gaston County lives each day but that rate has shown signs of slowing throughout the month of February.
The total number of confirmed cases of the virus to date reached more than 23,600 cases, up from nearly 23,200 the week prior.
The percent positive rate fell to 9.97%, its lowest mark in more than three months as the number of hospitalized patients also declined last week by nearly 30%.
Gaston County s COVID-19 death rate plunged at the end of last week, with just three people succumbing to the virus between Tuesday and Friday.
The total death toll over the past 11 months rose to 371 Friday from 368 on Tuesday. That s an average of just one death per day, after averaging more than two deaths per day in the nearly four months since Oct. 15.
The number of positive cases rose to just less than 22,600 positive cases up from 22,300 positive tests on Tuesday.
After reaching all time highs on Jan. 4 of 378 daily COVID-19 cases, that metric was more than halved on Feb. 1 to 176 daily cases, before falling to 115 cases on Feb. 8 and just 49 cases on Feb. 10.
The total number of COVID-19 deaths in Gaston County reached 342 on Friday but there s signs of positive trends in the data.
An additional 17 virus related deaths were reported between Jan. 22-29, an average of more than 2.4 deaths per day over that period.
A total of 241 people have died due to the virus over the past 15 weeks, or an average of nearly 2.3 deaths per day since Oct. 15.
Approximately 900 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Gaston County over the past week, growing to more than 21,100 since March 2020.
There have been signs of improvement in January, however. After weeks with the number of hospitalizations remaining above 100, that number fell to just 57 hospitalizations by Friday, with just three people on a ventilator.