Lunchroom banter quickly turned into a scary situation when a Wisconsin high school student began choking on a piece of food. Luckily, his friend jumped into action and prevented a potentially tragic situation.
In a video posted to the La Crosse School District’s Facebook page, a cafeteria security camera caught freshman Will Olson begin to cough on a cheese curd while eating with other students.
“Someone cracked a pretty good joke and I was laughing so hard to the point of where I took a deep breath and that’s when I started to choke,” Olson told KARE 11. “That’s when I really started to panic. Oh jeez, could I possibly die from this?”
Luckily, sitting across from him was fellow freshman Ian Brown, who calmly got up and performed the Heimlich maneuver on his classmate when he noticed a change of color in his friend’s face, according to the La Crosse Police. He performed the action four times before the item dislodged from Olson’s throat.
Brown then brought the student to the nurse’s office to make sure he was okay.
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According to the school, Brown was prepared for situation thanks to his training as a La Crosse Police Explorer, a program that introduces young adults to the criminal justice system.
“I had the training maybe a month ago,” Brown told KARE 11. “I plan to be a police officer, that’s my plan.”
For now, Brown is simply a hero to his high school.
“I walked into PE and people were clapping, and I come into the lunch room and got a standing ovation and a bunch of kids were clapping,” he said. “And I’m like, alright, can I eat my lunch?”
The two classmates plan to petition the school district to include basic CPR and training in the Heimlich maneuver in their health classes.
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