Watch: 8-Year-Old Hailed as a Hero for Saving His Friend's Life During Lunch
A second-grader from Mesa, Arizona, was honored last week for jumping into action to save a school classmate who was choking.
Thomas Conley, 8, was eating lunch at Porter Elementary School on Nov. 14 when he noticed his friend, Isaiah Rodriguez, was in distress, KPNX reported.
A grape had lodged in the boy’s throat, according to the report.
Both boys did exactly the right thing: Rodriguez drew attention to his plight by standing up and putting his hands to his neck — the universal sign to indicate choking.
Before any of the adults in the lunch room could act, Conley jumped up and quickly performed the Heimlich maneuver on his friend.
“For a second I didn’t know what what he was doing,” Conley told the TV news station. “But finally I realized that he was choking, so I just decided to do the Heimlich.”
“It’s because that I don’t want Isaiah to die,” he added. “You shouldn’t be scared to help somebody.”
When school principal Kathy Ray talked to Conley’s mother about the incident, she was surprised to learn that the family had just been discussing the Heimlich maneuver the night before.
“Just last night at the dinner table we were talking about how easy it is to choke on grapes,” the boy’s mother told her, Ray said. “And that’s just like — every hair on my body stood up.”
Ray said she knows from experience how horrible the outcome could have been.
“It was very emotional because seven years to the same month — almost to the day — we did have a student, a special needs student, choke in our cafeteria that did not make it.”
The young hero’s mother, Candice Conley, told Fox News Digital that the family often discusses food safety and kitchen safety because she works for the Maricopa County Department of Public Health.
“Thomas is very quick-thinking and active — and he’s just a really good friend,” she said of her son. “[He] just knew that he had to get air to go up to dislodge the grape.”
She said Rodriguez’s parents were “so thankful” to her son.
“The first time I saw his mom, I just hugged her,” she told Fox. “We are just so thankful, most of all, that Isaiah is OK.”
Mesa Fire and Medical Department honored Conley at a school assembly, praising his quick thinking and presenting him with a certificate.
“Thomas turned a regular lunchtime into an extraordinary act of bravery,” the department said in a Facebook post.
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