Scary moment leads Central A&M graduate to the medical field

ASSUMPTION, Ill. (WAND) - A little over a year ago, Jackie Moore was inside Scoop'd in Pana eating ice cream with friends, when a worker came out from the back, choking.

Moore used the skills she had just learned that morning, using the Heimlich to save the worker.

She says that day, everything changed. She wanted to become a teacher, but now wants to be a nurse.

"[My family was] talking about college and I said, 'I don't want to be a teacher anymore,' and they said, 'Okay, what do you want to do?' They were very supportive," Moore said. "I said, 'I want to do something in the medical field. I want to do nursing and I want to be a pediatric nurse.'"

Moore has stuck to that, volunteering for the last year with Assumption Ambulance.

Alex Stringer is the Chief of Assumption Ambulance and taught Jackie the Heimlich.

"She got ahold of me the next morning or the next day and explained what happened and for me, it's kind of neat to see that," Stringer said. "Knowing that she was down there and had the training and was able to help that person, it comes full circle."

Moore says she is usually the one that picks up shifts when others can't make it.

"If we do get a call I get to learn more." Moore even added, "I show up to a lot for calls when I'm not even on call, but I get to learn a lot from those experiences."

Moore is taking an EMT course at Lake Land College this summer and then will attend Eastern Illinois University to take pre-nursing classes.