An eight-year-old boy is being hailed as a hero after saving his toddler brother from choking on a quarter.
Sterling Blake, from Independence Township, New Jersey, was playing with his 22-month-old brother, Grainger, on August 2 when, suddenly, the tot put something in his mouth.
‘He probably grabbed the quarter and he ate it, or he tried to, but he choked on it,’ Sterling told CBS 2.
‘Once he was choking, I didn’t think about anything. It was just my reaction.’
Sterling Blake, eight (left), from Independence Township, New Jersey, is being hailed as a hero after saving his 22-month-old brother, Grainger (right), on August 2, from choking on a quarter
Sterling and Grainger (pictured) were playing when Sterling noticed that his younger brother had put something in his mouth and was starting to choke
Just two days earlier, the boys’ father, Ben, had taught Sterling (pictured, holding Grainger) how to perform the Heimlich maneuver on a baby. So the eight-year-old whacked his brother on the back to dislodge the quarter
Just two days earlier, the boys’ father, Ben, had taught Sterling how to perform the Heimlich maneuver on a baby.
‘He told me on babies, hit them on the back,’ Sterling said.
‘I thought he was choking, so I whacked him on the back. He threw up a quarter. He started crying.’
The Washington Township Police Department decided to honor Sterling’s action with a departmental commendation certificate, sharing a photo on Thursday of the ‘ceremony’ along with the two brothers.
Ben, a member of the police department who served as a Marine in Iraq, said he and his wife taught their son to look out for his brother, how to recognize the signs of choking and what to do in that situation.
‘He’s very humble about it,’ he told Lehigh Valley Live. ‘Every time we told somebody, he just shrugs it off like it was nothing.’
The Washington Township Police Department decided to honor Sterling’s (second from right) action with a departmental commendation certificate, sharing a photo of the ‘ceremony’. The boys’ father, Ben (far right), is a member of the department
The boys’ parents, Essence and Ben (pictured), say the incident is a lesson in making sure children learn life-saving techniques as early as possible
But the Blakes say the incident is a lesson in making sure children learn life-saving techniques as early as possible.
‘It’s a huge lesson to parents to tell and teach your children how to do it. Even if you think they’re not listening, they are,’ the boys’ mother, Essence, told CBS 2.
‘[Sterling is] eight, he’ll be nine on Christmas Eve, and he listened to everything we said and did it the exact way he was supposed to do it.’
Similar stories have appeared of children saving people’s lives after learning the Heimlich maneuver.
Last month, 13-year-old Lila Szojka, received a national Girl Scout Award for saving her grandmother’s life when she choked at a local Applebee’s in Middleburg Heights, Ohio, back in March.