Woman saves girlfriend's homophobic grandma with CPR after she chokes on steak during holiday dinner

Lizzy Bristow now has a holiday dinner story for the ages after she saved her girlfriend's grandma like an absolutely badass hero. In a video that's been going viral on social media, Bristow—who goes by @bodybydaddy/LGBTQ FITNESS on TikTok—recounted the thrilling tale of how she rescued the elderly woman, an hour after the 91-year-old made a homophobic comment about her. "Do you what it's like to give CPR to your girlfriend's grandmother on Christmas, at Christmas dinner? Let me tell you," she says in the nearly-2-minutes-long video that's been viewed over 7.7 million times on TikTok.

"Okay! So, it's Christmas dinner. I'm sitting next to her brother, across from me is the 91-year-old grandmother. My girlfriend's out of the room and her mom is out of the room. We had steak for dinner, it was delicious. The brother notices though, that the grandmother is chewing, looking down and she can't swallow something. She's really struggling," Bristow shares. "'Grandma, are you okay?' She's still struggling. 'Grandma, are you okay? Grandma, are you choking?!' All of a sudden her face turns blue, I stand up. 'Does anyone know the Heimlich?'"

"The oldest brother, the strongest one, he tries. But he doesn't know what he's doing, because he's not CPR certified. I am. I jump up, he's like 'Take over, take over!' I'm like 'okay.' Belly button, thumb, let's go! Let's go! I am just thrusting as hard as I can, in and up. In and up. She just passes out. This woman is 90 pounds. She just passes out in my arms, I lay her down on the ground and I start compressions. Everyone around me is losing it. I yell for someone to call 911, everyone just scatters," she continues. 

Bristow goes on to reveal that just an hour before she began choking on her food, the 91-year-old—named Dana—had asked her if she was "the boy." "And now I'm over her, and I'm giving her compressions, probably breaking her ribs," she says. After what seems like forever, the piece of steak Dana choked on, comes back out and the elderly woman regains some color. "I felt like I won the Super Bowl," Bristow shares, "and I never want to do that again. Everyone get CPR certified."

Thousands commented on the video, praising Bristow for her fast actions. "For the rest of her life she’s going to recount the tale of the handsome young man that saved her life," one TikTok user jokingly commented, while another wrote: "she put 'ally' in her fb bio after this." Even the American Red Cross reached out to the fitness trainer, with a comment that reads: "WOW! What an amazing story, @LGBTQ FITNESS. We'd love to recognize you for your heroic actions. Share your story with us at LifesavingAwards.org." Another TikTok user with the username krystalbee11 poked fun at the grandmother's homophobic comments. "The boy? No ma’am. THE HERO!" they wrote.

In an update video, Bristow revealed that her efforts to get Dana breathing again had indeed broken her ribs; all of them. "Okay, so apparently, I broke everyone single one of her ribs. But she's okay! She's in the hospital now," she reveals in the video. Bristow also shared that grandma Dana didn't say anything to her after the traumatic incident since she was unaware her granddaughter's girlfriend was her savior until later on in the hospital. "Then she said I did a good job! Because all of her ribs were broken but in the same place, so that's... good!"