Dr. Willie Ross is no stranger to emergency situations. He’s a pediatrician at Stanford Children’s Hospital and also works at Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, and his wife, Jean, is a pediatric ER nurse.
So Saturday at Oracle Park, Ross — whose son, Joe, pitches for the Nationals — sprang into action when he noticed a woman choking two sections away in the lower level behind home plate.
Ross used the Heimlich maneuver to restore her breathing.
“I saw her having some difficulties and I saw her companion helping her out,” said Ross, an Oakland resident. “Then I just started watching, making sure that she was OK, and I went over just to chat, and she couldn’t talk, she needed help. She had three pieces of hot dog lodged in her airway. … The third piece was as big as my first knuckle.”
Ross said the woman recently had retired as a nurse after 53 years, and he chatted with her a bit to make sure she was OK.
“She was thankful, she was grateful, but she was a little embarrassed,” Ross said. “She’s a nurse so she’s used to giving aid, not receiving it.”
The woman was able to stay the remainder of the game.
“That’s awesome,” Washington manager Dave Martinez said. “That’s pretty cool, Joe should be pretty proud of him.”
Ross also has another save to his credit on a baseball field; when his son Tyson was pitching for the A’s, he was alerted that an A’s staffer’s relative had had a stroke at an amateur field in San Leandro. He arranged for her emergency treatment “and she did very well,” he said.
Susan Slusser is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @susanslusser
