A heroic five-year-old boy saved his little brother who started choking on a meatball – by using first aid training skills he learned at school.
Little Oliver Bevans managed to stay calm after Stanley, three, had the chunk of food lodged in his throat.
The brave youngster smacked his little brother on the back three times to dislodge the blockage.
The boys were having dinner at their grandparents’ house and the drama unfolded when their gran had left the room to get some garlic bread.
Gran Angela Bevans, 61, from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffs, said: “As I came back in the room Oliver came up to me and said, ‘Moma, Stanley has been sick’.
“Oliver said he had got up from his chair and smacked him on the back.
“I was then concerned because I thought he had been sick, rather than choking.
“I haven’t done any first aid training and I have never had to do that with my own children.
“I said to Oliver that he saved Stanley’s life, and told him what a clever boy he is.
“He reacted so quickly that I didn’t even know it had happened.
“Oliver did save his life and I’m so proud of him.”
Oliver picked up the life-saving skills during a demonstration by St John Ambulance at his school in Tean, Staffs.
He said: “I’m happy and proud about what I did.”
Mum Amy, 31, who runs an electrical engineering business with her husband Joe, 30, in Tean, said: “Oliver did what he needed to do and we were shocked.
“I am really proud of him.
“Oliver was calming Stanley down, kissing and cuddling him, and telling him to chew his food ten times before he swallows it.”
St John Ambulance was invited into Oliver’s St Thomas’ Catholic Primary School as part of a vocations day earlier this month.
Reception class teacher Kirsty Mellor said: “They told the children how to deal with someone who was choking and demonstrated what to do.
“We are really proud of what he did.
“Children are capable of learning at the age of five and this training should be brought into all schools.”
District manager of St John Ambulance Greg McKeown said: “What a brilliant effort by Oliver.
“It’s absolutely fantastic that he took our training session in so well that he was able to use his new skills on his little brother and save his life.
“Maybe one day he’ll become a volunteer first aider with St John Ambulance – he sounds like exactly the kind of person we’d love to recruit in the future.”
