Eighth-grader saves choking friend using Heimlich maneuver
December 8, 2012 8:14PM
Updated: December 8, 2012 10:27PM
Thinking fast, Travon Avery saved fellow eighth-grader Jose Duran by performing the Heimlich maneuver when his friend began choking on an Almond Joy candy bar during a class last week at Herget Middle School in Aurora.
“We were sitting in the classroom . . . just talking,” Travon said. That’s when Jose started choking. Unable to get the candy bar loose, he started to panic.
Travon reacted quickly. “I asked, ‘Are you choking?’” Travon said. “Last year, they taught us if a person wasn’t talking, it’s ‘cause they were choking.”
Travon had learned to do the Heimlich maneuver last year in a Life Skills class at Jefferson Middle School.
Stephanie Lulay
