‘Ran over to save mine’: Mother searches for women who saved her choking child in Puyallup

PUYALLUP, Wash. — “I’m just so glad that she’s still here to hug you know.”

Tamara Pietzke says she’s hugging her three children a little tighter – after her 3-year-old daughter Noa had a harrowing experience at a Costco in Puyallup.

The three siblings went with their aunt last Monday for lunch in the food court to eat some hot dogs.

Kinzi Allen says her niece took one bite and immediately something was wrong.

“I saw the panic and fear in her eyes and I couldn’t help, so yeah, it was scary,” said Allen.

She says Noa started crying and gasping for air.

“I was like ‘can somebody please help me because she’s choking on a hot dog and needs somebody to help me’ and everybody was looking and these two women made eye contact with me and one just left her kids and ran over and grabbed her and she pushed her over and was doing the Heimlich and it got out and I was so grateful,” said Allen.

Within seconds, Noa was fine and didn’t even need medical attention.

After the chaos, Allen called Noa’s mother.

“She said ‘I thought I was gonna have to tell you that your baby died – that it was my fault that she died in my arms.’ She was hysterical, she was like sobbing on the phone,” said Pietzke.

Pietzke says her little girl is doing just fine.

“I’m so glad she doesn’t seem to have remembered it or be phased by it because I just can’t imagine that terror,” the mother said.

She says what she really wants now is to get in touch with the woman who rushed in to help save her daughter’s life.

“This woman left her own kids and ran over to save mine. I just want to thank you – you are the reason that I get to keep raising her and so if we can find her, I want to so badly,” said Pietzke.

She says Costco management is now working to help her make contact with the woman who came to her daughter’s rescue.

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