When Cub Scout Nicholas Ramos was taught the “back thrust” technique to save someone from choking on food two years ago, he apparently learned his lesson well.
On Jan. 25 Nicholas needed to put his training into action to save of the life of his friend Steven Jones who was choking on a carrot during lunch in the Jackson Avenue School cafeteria in Mineola.
The fourth graders were sitting across from one another while eating lunch when Steven took a carrot from his friend’s plate and put his hands around his throat to signal his friend that he was choking.
Nicholas immediately sprang into action.
“His lips were turning color,” Nicholas recalled. “So I got up and hit him in the back.”
The “back thrust” is a life-saving technique requiring a sharp blow in the center of the chocking person’s back. Nicholas struck his friend three times, the carrot was dislodged and they both felt better.
“I felt fine,” Steven said.
Nicholas felt “great,” he said, “because it worked and I saved my friend.”
Steven thanked Nicholas and they went back to class together.
Their teacher, Karen Curran, recently recognized her student’s life-saving reaction with a medal, a ball in the shape of an animal and vanilla cake.
The Mineola School District also acknowledged Steven and Nicholas in a press release, praising Nicholas for “his life-saving action that day and Steven for knowing how and when to utilize the symbol for choking.”
But Nicholas, who has been a member of Cub Scout Pack 246 for the past four years, said he doesn’t think of himself as a hero. He said he simply saw his friend in trouble and did what needed to be done.
“It gives me a really good feeling because I’m happy my friend’s still here and I’m proud of myself,” Nicholas said.
“I’m proud of you too,” Steven added during an interview with the two students.
The two boys, who have been friends for the past three years, play in a Police Athletic League roller hockey league together.
Nicholas didn’t even tell his mother, Linda, what had happened. She’s also the den leader of his pack and found out about the incident over the following weekend.
Steven’s mother, Lourain, tearfully thanked her while they were watching their sons play roller hockey.
“I feel wonderful. I feel proud of him,” said Linda Ramos, who taught her son the “back-thrust” move. “I’m glad he paid attention when I showed it to him.”
Ramos said the crucial thing was that, in the moment of crisis, neither boy panicked.
“It’s a parent’s worst nightmare to hear that,” said Lourain Jones, who called Nicholas “a brave nine-year-old.”
She thinks someone besides Nicholas was looking out for her son when he started choking.
“There was definitely an angel that day,” she said. “It could have been a very different story.”
Reach reporter Richard Tedesco by e-mail at rtedesco@theislandnow.com or by phone at 516.307.1045 x204. Also follow us on Twitter @theislandnow1 and Facebook at facebook.com/theislandnow.
