MILTON - It was 5 p.m. when Milton police dispatcher Brian Foley answered the 911 call and heard the words, ‘‘My daughter’s choking.’’

Foley’s first move was to send an ambulance to the Hinkley Road address.

‘‘Do you know the Heimlich? Do you know the Heimlich maneuver?’’ Foley is heard asking on the police recording of the call.

‘‘What can I do?’’ the frantic mother, Andrea Smith, asked.

In a calm, even voice, Foley instructed Smith:

‘‘Stand behind her. Do you have her standing up? Wrap your arms around her. Make a fist with one hand and place it thumb-side over the stomach between her belly button and the bottom of her breastbone. Give a quick upward thrust to the stomach and keep doing that.’’

‘‘Is it out?’’ Foley asked several times. ‘‘Is she OK? Is she breathing?’’

Foley said he was relieved when the mother breathlessly answered, ‘‘She’s throwing up.’’

The piece of hard candy that had lodged in 8-year-old Caroline Smith’s throat popped out as soon as her mother began the maneuver.

‘‘Thank you. Oh, my God,’’ Smith said, the crisis finally over.

The whole episode took about 3 minutes Monday afternoon.

‘‘She wasn’t breathing,’’ Smith told Foley. ‘‘I swear to God it was two minutes.’’

Foley, 24, will receive a commendation from Police Chief Richard G. Wells Jr. and an extra day off.

Lt. Brian Cherry, Foley’s shift commander, said in his report that Foley’s ‘‘professional style under these circumstances was the lone reason that an 8-year-old girl named Caroline will continue to enjoy many holiday seasons to come.’’

Today, Smith praised the dispatcher for his help in saving her daughter’s life.

‘‘This guy was just amazing,’’ she said.

‘‘You cannot calm down while you’re watching your child in that situation. It is like watching your child drowning, and you cannot get to them. You feel completely helpless,’’ she said.

Foley patiently got her through the Heimlich procedure, she said.

‘‘He had to walk me through it two or three times. He talked me through it like he would talk someone through riding a bike: step by step,’’ she said.

‘‘It was a no-fail approach. He knew I was not getting it, and he just kept asking, saying ‘you are going to get it,’ ’’ she said.

And when Caroline finally got the candy out, and the crisis was suddenly over, ‘‘you feel like you are going to collapse,’’ Smith said.

Foley, a civilian dispatcher, hopes to become a police officer someday. He says police work is in his blood. His father, Kevin, is a Milton police lieutenant and day-shift commander. His brother, Kenneth, is with the State Police, and his grandfather was a Boston police officer.

‘‘I’ve had medical calls before, but nothing this extreme,’’ Foley said.

Although Smith seemed hysterical when she yelled that her daughter was choking, she controlled herself well enough to be able to follow instructions, Foley said.

‘‘When you come down to it, she listened to all the instructions and got the job done. She did a great job getting through it,’’ he said.

Meanwhile, today, Smith was relieved that something that could have turned out so horribly wrong had turned out so incredibly well.

‘‘Christmas is coming,’’ she said. ‘‘What a great gift.’’