Quick-Thinking Carnival Crew Member Saves Infant Choking on Grape
Key Aspects:
A Carnival Celebration crew member saved an 11-month-old girl who was choking.
Restaurant manager Millić Šarović received Carnival Cruise Line’s internal “Hero” award for the rescue.
Šarović was previously named one of the cruise line’s top leaders.
For one Carnival Cruise Line crew member, what started as a routine dinner break turned into a race to save a baby’s life.
Millić Šarović, a restaurant manager aboard Carnival Celebration, is being recognized after rescuing an 11-month-old girl who stopped breathing after choking on a grape during a recent voyage.
The off-duty crew member received the cruise line’s internal “Hero” award following the incident, which occurred as the ship was sailing toward Miami, according to local media reports in Montenegro, where Šarović resides.
Šarović had just finished his shift and sat down to eat in one of the 183,521-gross-ton ship’s 17 dining venues when another crew member rushed over and told him something was terribly wrong.
He ran toward a crowd that had gathered around the infant, who appeared unconscious and was showing no signs of life.
“I had sat down to have dinner when a crew member came over, very upset,” Šarović told local media. “I ran over and saw a crowd of people surrounding a little girl. She was clearly unconscious, and I saw they were hitting her from behind, on the back, so I assumed she was choking.”
Šarović instinctively jumped in, noticing no one was using the Heimlich maneuver.
“I took her, even though I didn’t know if she was alive, and I risked a lot because if she had died in my arms, it would have destroyed my career and my life. But the parent in me took over,” he said.
It took the heroic crew member about a minute before he got a response from the little girl, who eventually expelled the grape she had swallowed and started breathing again. The ship’s doctor eventually arrived on the scene and confirmed the baby was all right.
No details have been released about the infant passenger following the rescue.
A True Hero
Although Carnival Cruise Line has its own onboard medical centers staffed by doctors and nurses, crew members are often the first to respond when emergencies happen in public areas.
That was the case aboard the 5,362-passenger Carnival Celebration, which is currently homeporting in Miami to offer Eastern and Western Caribbean voyages that feature the cruise line’s new private destination, Celebration Key on Grand Bahama Island.
The rescue earned Šarović, one of 1,735 crew members sailing on Carnival Celebration, the “Hero” award, which recognizes employees who take extraordinary action.
“Millić Šarović is being recognized for living the Carnival Values and bringing them to life for our guests and fellow team members,” stated Carnival Cruise Line.
The recognition followed another company honor he received last year, when Carnival Cruise Line named him one of its top leaders, according to local media reports. But Šarović says saving the girl “is the greatest achievement of my career.”
Outside his career at sea, the Carnival team member is known in his hometown of Bar, Montenegro, where he previously co-owned Dublin Pub and performed as a musician. He continues to lead the rock band 9 while working as one of the senior restaurant managers aboard Carnival Celebration.
Quick-Thinking Carnival Crew Member Saves Infant Choking on Grape