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11-Year-Old Saves 2 Lives in One Day, Credits YouTube

Davyon Johnson helped choking classmate, then saved elderly woman from house fire
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 23, 2021 10:04 AM CST

"Not all heroes wear capes" is the astute observation by Essence on the latest story out of Oklahoma. That's where 11-year-old Davyon Johnson is receiving praise for saving not one, but two people in one day earlier this month. CNN reports that Davyon's busy day of heroism on Dec. 9 began while he was in class at the 6th and 7th Grade Academy in Muskogee. Principal Latricia Dawkins tells the Enid News & Eagle that one of Davyon's classmates was trying to loosen the cap on a water bottle with his teeth when the cap fell into his mouth and down his throat. The choking boy stumbled into Davyon's classroom, which happened to be a lucky turn of events.

That's because Davyon leaped to his feet and performed the Heimlich maneuver on the struggling student. "From the account of the witnesses, when he did it the bottle cap popped out," Dawkins says. Davyon could have called it a day at that point, but later that evening, he saw a house that was on fire and an elderly woman with a walker trying to escape it. "I thought, 'She's not moving fast enough,' so I ran across the street ... and helped her," he tells KOTV.

Davyon says he learned the Heimlich maneuver from watching a YouTube video. "He has always indicated that he wants to be an EMT," Dawkins tells the Enid News, which notes Davyon's uncle is one. "So he got to put that desire into action and immediately saved that young man." As for helping the elderly woman, he says he just wanted to be a "good citizen." The Muskogee Public Schools Board of Education honored Davyon last week, with the local police department and sheriff's office making him an honorary member of their forces. As for what his mother thinks about all the commotion surrounding her son, she tells the Enid News: "I'm just a proud mom." (More hero stories.)

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