Video: 8-year-old Adrian Thompson died after choking on chicken. Teachers did not do Heimlich Maneuver. School chickens are known to be dry and nasty, that may of led to the girl choking
Velma Penny Elementary School student Adrian Thompson, 8, died in the school cafeteria after choking on a piece of dry chicken. The school is located in Texas. On April 15, 2026 Adrian began choking at lunch. Follow Charlotte Alerts on Instagram.
Adrian was at lunch eating with friends, she swallowed a piece of dry chicken, but it went down the wrong way and became lodged in her throat. Adrian is seen going up to a teacher for help. The teacher directs Adrian to a trash can.
The girl motions to show she needs more help. The teacher then foolishly tells the girl to go to the bathroom. Adrian goes to the bathroom but returns 13 seconds later, signifying she still needed help and was choking. At this time Adrian had blood on her cheeks.
The teacher moves away from Adrian as if she does not want to help the girl, the teacher tells Adrian to go to the school nurse office. The teacher never performs the heimlich maneuver on Adrian or pats her on the back. The teacher does not assist Adrian in walking or getting to the nurse’s office.
Another teacher is notified as the girl can’t breathe clearly. Adrian runs down long hallways to get to the school medical office by herself. The second teacher is 30 feet or more behind Adrian as she runs to the nurse.
A choke life saving device was administered on Adrian in the nurse’s office, but it did not work. Also the school nurse tried the heimlich maneuver on her, but that didn’t work either because the girl had been going nearly 5 minutes without breathing clearly.
911 is called and the girl is taken by ambulance to the adult hospital. She was later taken to the Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas. Sadly Adrian died in the early morning hours of April 16, 2026.
Velma Penny Elementary School did not have adequate choke training. Adrian’s parents plan to sue the school district.
