9-Year-Old Performs The Heimlich Maneuver And Saves His Classmate’s Life

A nine-year-old boy used the Heimlich maneuver to help save a classmate on the last day of the school year at Leith Walk Elementary School in Baltimore on June 19, 2023. According to WMAR, fourth-grade student Jace Wiggins performed the life-saving technique while attending a class party.

Wiggins learned the Heimlich maneuver from his mother, Charlie Gilliam, a certified instructor who also taught him CPR (Cardiopulmonary resuscitation) when he was seven years old.

Wiggins told WMAR about the incident saying, “We were just having fun in the music room listening to music. She went to go have a drink of water, and the next minute she was chewing on a cap and drinking water, and it must have went down.”

After several attempts to get the cap out of her system, he succeeded and saved her life.

“When she was gasping for air, and she was trying to get out what she was saying, she was trying to say help, but we couldn’t understand it, but I kind of heard it.”

The school acknowledged his heroic efforts, and Wiggins will join his mother this summer when she teaches young children how to perform CPR and use AED (automated external defibrillator).

In a similar effort, Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin recently started a multi-city tour titled the Chasing M’s Foundation CPR Tour. The first stop was the Bills’ home field, Highmark Stadium, and he will continue to hit several different cities as he intends to help teach people how to perform CPR techniques similar to the one that helped save Hamlin’s life in January 2023.

The football player suffered cardiac arrest and was resuscitated on the field during a Monday Night Football game in front of a nationally televised audience. Kudos to this young scholar for taking the initiative and jumping in at the right time to help save another child’s life.