SARANAC LAKE — A first grade field trip to the Ice Palace on Wednesday could have ended disastrously if it weren’t for the quick actions of a teacher leading the trip.

Local parent Jason Minnie said Emily Doyle-Shubert, a teacher at Petrova Elementary School, saved his daughter Charlotte’s life by performing the Heimlich maneuver on her as she choked on a piece of ice.

“She’s a hero to us,” Minnie said.

Charlotte had stuck a piece of ice in her mouth while visiting the Palace Wednesday, as kids do, he said, when the ice got stuck in her throat, preventing her from breathing. Charlotte ran over to her teacher — Doyle-Shubert, pointing at her throat.

“My reaction was surprisingly calm,” Doyle-Shubert wrote in a message to the Enterprise. “I am (not) sure if it was my motherly instinct or adrenaline, but my demeanor was calm.”

Doyle-Shubert said she is certified in first aid and CPR because she used to coach high school soccer, but she had never needed to actually perform the Heimlich maneuver on someone choking before.

“I never expected to use my training, but I am very happy I have it,” she wrote.

It did not take long for the ice to come back out, and for Charlotte to begin breathing normally again.

“My students are like my own children, so it was definitely emotional,” Doyle-Shubert wrote. “I didn’t think twice about her coming to me, I just reacted.”

Minnie said his daughter and her teacher sat and cried together for a minute.

“We had an emotional moment of relief and gratefulness when everything came to an end,” Doyle-Shubert wrote. “We were both happy to have each other in that moment.”

Minnie got the message from Doyle-Shubert about his daughter when they got back to school.

It was “terrifying” at first, reading it, but then he was relieved when he heard about Doyle-Shubert’s actions. Minnie said it was an emotional moment for everyone.

“She was understandably a little upset when she got home,” Minnie said.

But Charlotte talked about it with him and gave him most of the details.

“I was just unbelievably thankful that she was there to save my daughter’s life,” Minnie said. “If she wasn’t around, I don’t know what would have happened.”

Minnie said he is grateful for Doyle-Shubert’s fast actions. Doyle-Shubert said she is grateful to have the training she did.