Yahoo Lifestyle 9-Year-Old Boy Saves His Friend from Choking at School: 'I Just Did My Thing'
Jayceon Branch, 9, said he learned the Heimlich maneuver after watching YouTube
CBS Chicago/YouTube
Jayceon Branch and Donye Moore at Raleigh Oak Charter School
Quick thinking by a 9-year-old boy in North Carolina helped save his friend who started choking at recess.
Jayceon Branch was playing basketball with his friend Donye Moore, 7, at Raleigh Oak Charter School when a surveillance video shows the younger boy starting to choke, according to WRAL News. Moore was eating a granola bar and began gasping for air when Branch stepped in to perform the Heimlich maneuver.
The outlet's surveillance footage shows the older boy reaching around the second grader’s body to perform two compressions, allowing him to expel the food and breathe properly.
“We were playing basketball and he ate a granola bar and we started playing longer until he started choking,” the 9-year-old told the outlet of the incident that occurred the week of March 3. “I didn’t know he was actually, actually choking, so I just did my thing, which was a Heimlich.”
The older boy revealed that he learned the life-saving maneuver from a YouTube video.
“I learned it from watching YouTube,” Branch told the outlet. He was inspired to learn after watching a teacher use the method to help another student who was choking.
Teachers and parents have applauded his heroic actions.
“We teach our kids to take care of each other, so this is really just a prime example of that," Eric Johnson, the executive director of Raleigh Oak Charter School, told WRAL News. "Jayceon just jumped into action so quickly. We’re really proud of him."
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Raleigh Oak Charter School has not immediately responded to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
The boys’ parents were also impressed, especially after watching the video. The second grader’s mother, Aja Moore, is thankful he’s okay.
“At first, I wasn’t understanding that he had to be given the Heimlich maneuver or anything like that. It was surprising,” she told the outlet. “I’m just thankful his friend was able to demonstrate that on him.”
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