NEWLAND, N.C. -- An Avery County woman says she might not have made it home if it weren't for two sheriff's deputies eating lunch with her in a Newland restaurant.

Cassie Barnett, a social worker, was having lunch with these two deputies when she got up from the table and walked toward the bathroom. Realizing she could not breathe, she quickly stopped and turned around.

She said she was eating rice.

Sheriff’s deputy Isaiah Aldridge asked if she was choking and if she could breathe and in the split second she said no, she hit the floor. That’s when Aldridge and deputy Tim Austin raced over to her.

“In that particular moment your training takes over completely,” the officers said.

It was training they got just seven days before.

Barnett has three adopted children one with special needs. She says if it wasn't for these deputies, she may have not seen her children again.