Thanks to one fourth-grader’s sharp memory and quick feet, tragedy was avoided two weeks ago at the Evans Elementary School cafeteria.
Derek Mihalecsko, 10, was hanging out with his friend, Gavin Gibson, and eating lunch like they always do when Gibson stood up at the table suddenly, making strange noises.
In Derek’s words, Gavin always likes to make people laugh and joke around, but when he started to slam his hands down on the table and his face began to get bright red, Derek knew something was wrong.
“He’s a really good joker. He jokes around a lot, but he got up and started to bang the table with his hands and fist, and so I jumped up, ran around the table and gave him Heimlich maneuver,” Derek said.
After a few thrusts, a Cheez-It dislodged itself from Gavin’s throat and he could breathe again.
Gavin, also 10-years-old, said it was a scary moment.
“I could breathe a little bit, just a tiny bit, but I couldn’t breathe enough. It was just a tiny little bit, I was scared,” he said.
So how does a 10-year-old with no CPR training know how to do such a picture-perfect Heimlich maneuver? Well, movies and television can certainly help give you a nice picture of how it should be done, he said.
“I’ve seen it in movies before and also there’s a poster in front of the cafeteria to show you how to do it that I looked at once. We talk about it at school at the start of the year — that’s only once. I never looked at it again,” he said. “I did remember how to do it, though.”
Despite possibly saving his friend from a serious fate, Derek took it all in stride and didn’t even tell his parents about it when he got home from school that day.
Matt Mihalecsko, Derek’s dad, said his son came home from school and went over to a friend’s house to hang out almost immediately. Shortly after he left, they received a phone call from Evans Elementary School Principal Nick DeBlasi.
“He went to his friend’s house when he got home, he never said a word about it to us, but we got a call later from his principal.” he said, “’I guess Derek told you about what happened today at lunch,’” Matt said, chuckling. “We were thinking to ourselves, oh no what did he do, but the principal told us and it was really great. It’s really cool.”
It definitely was, which is why Evesham Township School District Board of Education President Sandy Student awarded Derek a special commendation for his actions.
“Several years ago, in a similar situation, someone saved my life in another life-and-death situation,” Student said. “So I emphasized the importance of stepping up and coming to the aid of your friend.”
Derek received a certificate of honor for jumping into action during a medical emergency.
“It’s cool that I got it, but I’m happy that he’s still alive. That’s the biggest thing,” he said.
In the future, Gavin joked that he’ll probably sit next to Derek at the cafeteria table instead of across from him to save time if he chokes again.
