Pastor saves worshiper’s life with Heimlich after she chokes on mint

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Wednesday, February 21, 2024

A Georgia pastor whose sermon on spiritual warfare at a revival service in Alabama was interrupted by an older adult congregant choking on a mint quickly responded by saving her life with the Heimlich maneuver last Thursday, and it was all caught on video.

The pastor, Brandon Stewart of New Hope Fellowship Full Gospel Ministries in Taylorsville, was serving as a guest speaker at Mount Zion Church in Gordon, Alabama, when parishioner, Lois Adams, began coughing around 2 hours and 19 minutes into the service, according to a Facebook Live broadcast.

As Stewart continues recounting his encounter with a demon-possessed young woman, a few congregants sitting at the front on the church moved to Adams’ aid and asked him to “help her” as she gasped for air.

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Stewart quickly stepped in and applied the Heimlich maneuver to Adams, and once he was certain that she was OK, he declared, “You ain’t going nowhere Ms. Lois.”

In an interview with WTVY, Stewart explained that he initially thought Adams was just wrestling with a cold or allergies.

“In the middle of the message and we were just kind of going, and we were getting ready to close, I heard coughing. I know it’s allergy season and colds were running around so I was like, it could be just that,” he said. “We were about to lay hands on her and heal her in the name of Jesus in a minute.”

Once he realized what was happening, Stewart knew exactly what he needed to do.

“I picked her up off the ground. We jump in and Pastor Derrick comes up because he is back up. He’s like, here we go. He’s a first responder also, and a great pastor of this church. And doing that once she was clear and could talk, we all made a joke,” Stewart recalled.

While she didn’t explain what kind of mint she had in her mouth during the sermon, Adams said she was trying to keep her mouth from getting dry.

“I was praising the Lord like everybody else, but I had a piece of mint in my mouth because I get a dry mouth. I got choked on it,” Adams said. “I went to coughing and a little piece of it, [I] reckon, went down my throat and I couldn’t breathe. Next thing I know somebody has me in the air.”

The disruption of the service didn’t last very long. Members gave Adams water and in less than three minutes Stewart was back to his sermon.

“We dealt with that demon. That demon came out that night. You may think you’ve gone so deep into darkness that you can’t come back, but you can. Jesus always pulls you back,” he told the congregants as he urged them to keep reading Scripture.

“We did the business, now it’s time to get back to business,” he told WTVY. “ … I’m honored and humbled that He used me in this position to be able to spread His Gospel and save Miss Lois.”