A 12-year-old Missouri boy who told his mom he didn’t want to learn CPR during the summer break is crediting the same class for helping to save his sister’s life.
Kyle Prater, 12, from Cottleville was enjoying time off school during the summer when his friend’s mother suggested the kids should take CPR classes as a local library.
“I called my mom and said, ‘I really don’t want to do this’ [but] she made me do it anyway,” said Prater to NBC affiliate KSDK News.
“It was not something I really even thought about,” said Prater’s mother, Kimberly, to KSDK. “It’s definitely going to be beneficial.”
Little did the family know that a few weeks later that 20-minute free class would end up saving Kyle’s nine-year-old sister, Camdon’s, life.
Kimberly said they had all gone out for ice cream when she looked in her rear view mirror and saw Camdon begin to choke on her cone.
“I hurried up and pulled over, I flew out of the car and pulled open the back door,” she told KSDK.
But Prater had everything under control.
I pulled my sister out of the seat and gave her the Heimlich maneuver,” said Prater.
He even told his mom “I got this.”
Kimberly said that Camdon was crying really hard and hugging her brother.
“I don’t know what I would’ve done. It just makes me realize how important it is,” Kimberly told KSDK. “It makes me emotional.”
According to David Lewis, assistant chief of the St. Charles ambulance district in Missouri, it doesn’t take a long time for permanent damage to occur when someone who is lacking oxygen.
“Brain death or hypoxy can occur from lack of oxygen in just four minutes,” Lewis told KSDK.
KSDK reported that it could take an ambulance in the area on average five minutes to make it to a scene.
All-in-all it was a scary realization of the importance it is to know CPR – and for one young boy the ability to save his sister’s life.
KSDK also wrote Prater will be given a commendation for his quick-thinking and has been asked to serve as an honorary Heimlich instructor.
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