double champion.
An 11-year-old boy from Oklahoma, United States was honored on December 15 for saving two lives, not one on the same day.
Named an honorary member of both the sheriff’s office and police force, Devon Johnson has been recognized by the Board of Education in his hometown of Muskogee, located about 50 miles southeast of Tulsa.
The Muskogee County Sheriff’s Office wrote in Facebook social networking site.
The Heimlich maneuver is a first aid procedure that performs abdominal thrusts on a person who is choking.
Meanwhile, Muskogee Public School also posted a series of photos on Facebook showing Devon posing with his decorations.
“I’m relieved, I’m excited,” said the boy after receiving the award.
How were the rescues?
Devon Johnson was at Muskogee Public School, where he attended sixth grade, on December 9 when a classmate tried to open the top of a water bottle with his mouth and choke it.
“Devon ran straight away and did the Heimlich maneuver,” school principal Latricia Dawkins told a local newspaper.
“According to an eyewitness account, when this (Heimlich maneuver) took place, the victim spat out the bottle cap.”
The boy, in turn, said that he learned the maneuver on YouTube and that it was a valuable learning procedure.
“If anyone finds themselves in the situation I find myself in, they will know what to do,” Johnson added.
Director Dawkins added that she was not surprised by the boy’s quick reaction.
“He always says he wants to be an EMT (emergency medicine technician),” he said.
But Johnson’s good deed was not over that day.
A few hours later, the boy saw a disabled lady running away from a fire in her home and rushed to help her out of the garage and into her car.
“I thought she wasn’t moving fast enough. So I walked across the street and helped her into her truck,” Devon told a local television station.
According to director Dawkins, the boy is very liked by his peers and teachers.
“He’s a good soul,” said Dawkins, “a double hero.”
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