Watch: Truck Driver Pulls Over on ‘Instinct’ to Save Choking Mom on Side of Road

A truck driver sprung into action earlier this month after he saw a woman who had pulled over on the side of the highway, signaling that she was choking.

Jeff Hanus, a truck driver who pours concrete for Ozinga, was on his way to a work site Nov. 4 in Bolingbrook, Illinois, when a woman pulled up to his truck that was parked on the side of the road.

"She raises her hands towards her throat, and that's the international sign for choking," the retired Army sergeant told WLS-TV. "So I asked, 'Are you choking?' And she clearly said, 'yes.'"

A camera mounted on Hanus’ truck captured the whole ordeal. Video shows Hanus performing the Heimlich maneuver, and on the second thrust into the woman’s abdomen, the object that was choking the woman becomes dislodged, and she is able to breathe again.

"Instinct took over. I try to live my life both from my heart and my gut, and that's what was in control," Hanus told the outlet.

Still in shock, the woman returned to her vehicle, where Hanus said he saw two toddlers sitting in the backseat. "Then it hit me that if this would have went wrong, it could have went really, really wrong. What if she passed out, and the vehicle flipped?" Hanus told the station.

Hanus shared that he had lost a good friend a few years ago to choking, which reminded him how important it was to learn the Heimlich maneuver. In this instance, Hanus said he was glad the woman was able to find him out of all the cars on the road that day.

"Her angels and my angels got together, and it worked out," he told WLS-TV.