Chick-fil-A Employee Rescues Child Choking in Drive-Thru: 'This Could Have Been Far Worse'

Zack "Cowboy" Kokenzie rescued the child as they choked on a seatbelt in the drive-thru line in Columbus, Georgia

Zack "Cowboy" Kokenzie. Photo: Chick-fil-A Manchester/Facebook

A Chick-fil-A employee jumped into action when he noticed a customer choking — and likely saved their life in the process.

Zack “Cowboy” Kokenzie was working his shift at the Chick-fil-A in Columbus, Georgia on Monday when he heard “frantic” cries coming from a car in the drive-thru line, the restaurant said in a Facebook post.

“The Boy Scout motto is ‘Be Prepared’ and Zack certainly was,” the post said.

An Eagle Scout who is CPR certified, Kokenzie immediately rushed to the scene, where a father and another customer were desperately trying to help a child who was choking in the backseat of an SUV. The frantic cries were coming from several other children in the car.

“It appeared that the seat belt had become wrapped around the child’s windpipe,” the restaurant said on Facebook. “Another customer had left his vehicle and was trying unsuccessfully to assist the father in removing the seat belt by reaching through the back window.”

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Luckily for the group, Kokenzie was handed a pair of scissors by another Chick-fil-A employee, and calmly cut through the seatbelt “in seconds,” immediately freeing the choking child, the post said.

“Zack and our team acted quickly in rescuing a child from a life-threatening situation,” store owner and operator Alex Vann said in the post. “This could have been far worse, but Zack and others were in the right place, with the right training and the right attitude to potentially save the life of one of our customers. We are glad everyone is alright.”

As it turns out, Kokenzie is no stranger to keeping calm under pressure — the restaurant explained that he recently earned his nickname, Cowboy, after he nearly broke a finger while riding a horse that tried to buck him off.

Meanwhile, it’s not the first time a Chick-fil-A employee has come to the rescue of a customer.

In September 2019, Tauya Nenguke, 22, performed CPR on a 20-year-old customer suffering cardiac arrest in the parking lot at the chain’s Chula Vista, California location.