Indiana trooper rescues boy, 5, who was choking in minivan

PERRYSBURG, Ind. (AP) — An Indiana trooper used the Heimlich maneuver to save a 5-year-old Georgia boy who began choking as his family was returning from a vacation.

State police say Trooper Ben Reason was headed home Thursday when he heard a dispatch call about an unconscious boy along a nearby stretch of U.S. 31 in Miami County.

Reason arrived there in about 30 seconds and found Maddox Gates of Marietta, Georgia, being held by his mother inside the family’s stopped minivan.

After quickly assessing the child, Reason performed the Heimlich maneuver and the boy expelled an item from his throat.

Firefighters gave him oxygen before he was hospitalized.

Maddox’s father says his son is out of the hospital, doing well, and the family has resumed their journey home following a vacation in Michigan.