NATCHEZ — When Ed Worley bit into a piece of chicken last Tuesday, he thought he’d bit the big one.

A piece of chicken skin got caught halfway down, constricting his airway.

“It wouldn’t go down, and it wouldn’t come up,” Worley said. “It completely cut off my air.”

That’s when his aide of four years, Betty Squalls, noticed that something was wrong.

“He started to cough, and I asked Mr. Ed, are you choked?” Squalls said. “He just nodded his head.”

At first, Squalls told Worley to open his mouth so she could sweep any debris from his throat, but he shook his head no.

So she leaned Worley over so she could whack him on the back, but to no avail — he kept choking.

He was sitting on a barstool, and Squalls knew she needed to do the Heimlich Maneuver, but she was too short to reach him.

Finally she stood on her tiptoes and reaching around, she grabbed him and did three compressions, but still with no luck.

“At that point, I grabbed the phone and told him, Mr. Ed, I’m going to call 911,” Squalls said.

By then, Worley was at a point where he said he couldn’t even think.

“My body was shutting down,” he said. “My arms had gone numb. 911 would have never made it.”

But he wasn’t the only one who realized it.

“Something spoke to me and told me to try the Heimlich maneuver one more time before I made the call,” Squalls said. “I stood on my tiptoes and reached around until my fingers could touch, and I just did it with all the strength I had — and the meat came up.”

As he caught his breath, Worley’s first word was “thanks.”

“He said, ‘Betty, you just saved my life,’” Squalls said.

And Friday, Worley showed her his thanks by throwing Squalls a birthday party at the Castle.

“Betty’s been through a lot with us, but this was a thriller,” he said.

“She saved me.”