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A fourth-grader in southern New Jersey will be honored tomorrow for helping to save his choking classmate, the Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, N.J. is reporting.
Derek Mihalecsko, 10, of Marlton, N.J., will be recognized by the Evesham Township (N.J.) School District for using the Heimlich maneuver to save his friend, Gavin Gibson, from choking on a Cheez-It during lunch, the Courier-Post reports. Derek said he learned the life-saving move "from the movies."
"At first, we all thought it was a joke," Derek told the news organization about seeing his friend in distress. "But he started to make these weird sounds and then he turned red. I just got up and ran around the table and did the Heimlich maneuver."
Gavin, also 10, told the Courier-Post that he was far from joking.
"People were laughing because I goof around a lot, but I was really choking," the news organization quotes the boy as saying. " He saved my life."
Derek's mother, Jennifer Mihalecsko, a fourth-grade teacher in the Cherry Hill (N.J.) School District, said the incident motivated her to talk to her studetns about what to do in an emergency.
"It's important that the upper elementary schools are exposed to this kind of informaiton so they are prpared," she told the Courier-Post.
Said Derek, "I just wanted to help my friend."