MANCHESTER — An 87-year-old city resident said she has restaurant owner/city alderman Joe Kelly Levasseur to thank for being alive, after he revived her at his restaurant Saturday night.

Bette Duhaime said friends have said her skin was nearly Navy blue when Levasseur performed the Heimlich maneuver on her. Levasseur started resuscitation efforts once she lapsed into lifelessness a second time.

All happened during a busy Saturday night at his restaurant, Theos on Elm Street.

“I owe everything to him. He’s absolutely spectacular,” said Duhaime, when reached by telephone at her home Monday night.

“I will vote for him for anything he runs for, dogcatcher, whatever,” said Duhaime, who opened and ran the Wick Shop, a candle shop on Chestnut Street, for decades.

Levasseur said his Boy Scout training kicked in when a waitress entered his kitchen Saturday night to say a customer seemed to be choking.

He used the Heimlich method to clear her throat. Her skin color returned, she was breathing, and her companions said she was fine.

But then she lapsed into unconsciousness again, and Levasseur and a customer performed CPR. Levasseur said he did mouth-to-mouth breathing while a customer handled the chest compressions.

After about five rounds, Duhaime started breathing, Levasseur said.

“I tell you what’s amazing, it works. CPR actually works,” Levasseur said. Duhaime was rushed to Elliot Hospital and was discharged Sunday afternoon.

She said her jaw is black and blue and her lip is cut, and she may have a touch of pneumonia. But otherwise she is fine.

“He (Levasser) went right into action. No hestitation, no yelling, everyone was calm,” said Diane Joidon, a waitress at Theos.

mhayward@unionleader.com