“If you can’t speak or cough, do this”: Rosie O’Donnell heads to TikTok to share the international sign for choking after saving someone’s life

Comedian Rosie O’Donnell, now living in Ireland with her 12-year-old child, Dakota, shared an emotional and harrowing story on TikTok this week. It involved her unexpectedly saving a 90-year-old woman from choking.

While dining at the Dylan Hotel in Dublin after a comedy show, O’Donnell noticed something was wrong across the room. “I’m a hypervigilant person. They say kids who come from trauma-based backgrounds sometimes develop a hypervigilance. And I definitely have that,” she explained in the video. “I see a 90-year-old woman choking. […] And I jump into action like I’m an EMT, which I’m not.”

The woman, named Angela, had turned red and couldn’t breathe. O’Donnell immediately sprang into action, directing her cousin Kiki to perform the Heimlich maneuver.

@rosie true story #angela #mary #kiki #dylanhotel #chriscuomo #godWINKS THANK YOU 🙏🏾 #AMEN @Chris Cuomo ♬ original sound – Rosie ODonnell

“We stood her up,” Rosie recalled. She placed Kiki’s fist correctly and explained to her how to give abdominal thrusts to dislodge the food. “And I’m holding her hands and talking to her and saying, ‘It’s okay, it’s okay. Can you breathe?’ And I put my hand near her, and she could not breathe at all. And she started getting caught red in the face.”

O’Donnell, visibly shaken in the video, described the scene: “I yelled, ‘Call 911!’”—forgetting it’s 999 in Dublin.—”I’m thinking, nobody else is coming to help. Nobody from the hotel or the restaurant.” After what felt like an eternity, a chunk of food dislodged, and Angela could breathe again. After O’Donnell returned to her table, she saw Angela calmly finishing her meal with her daughters.

Lifesaving lessons and praise for Rosie’s quick thinking

At the end of her TikTok, O’Donnell showed viewers what to do when you’re choking, saying, “This is the international sign for choking,” she said, one hand clutching her throat. “If you can’t speak or cough, do this.” She emphasized how important it is to know this signal, especially since choking victims can’t cry for help.

Social media exploded with admiration. “Rosie, you are such a blessing,” one TikTok user commented. Another wrote, “When you think Rosie O’Donnell couldn’t be anymore of legend!!!!!!!”

Even reporter Chris Cuomo somehow heard the story before she had told anyone publicly. “And he says, ‘I hear you saved a 90 year old woman from choking in a hotel last night,’” she laughed. “I’m like, ‘Who are you with, the CIA? How the hell would you know that?’”

The moment sparked wider conversations about knowing what to do in a choking emergency. According to the Mayo Clinic, abdominal thrusts, commonly known as the Heimlich maneuver, can be life-saving when someone can’t breathe, speak, or cough. For adults and children over age one, “Alternate between five blows [to the back] and five [abdominal] thrusts until the blockage is dislodged.”

As Rosie summed it up, “Sometimes God puts you in the right place at the right time, and you figure out what to do or what to say. […] I don’t get it, I really don’t. Life is so strange sometimes, isn’t it? What you’re handed and what you deal with.”

And thanks to her viral TikTok, now millions more know what to do if they see someone choking.

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