By Mary Ellen Zangara, Special Writer
When 11-year-old Nicky Lazos went to a birthday party last week, little did he know he would be called upon to use skills he learned in Boy Scouts.
Nicky, a fifth-grader at Christ the King School and a Boy Scout in Manville’s Troop 193, and his family attended a birthday party for a friend in Whitehouse where his quick thinking ended up saving the life of a boy.
”My friend went outside, and he must have had some chocolate, and he must have not swallowed it all the way,” Nicky said. “It was going down his throat, and he started choking.”
Nicky saw the boy and kept asking “Are you OK? Are you OK?” but said the boy just keeping choking. Nicky performed the Heimlich maneuver.
The candy didn’t come out, but was dislodged, and Nicky’s friend was able to swallow it.
”I remembered from Boy Scouts when we were doing the health thing, and I remembered that you need to find the belly button and do the Heimlich maneuver and to push up,” he said.
Cubmaster Bruce Hixson was very proud of Nicky as he announced the incident at Monday night’s Boy Scout meeting.
”I feel very proud that some of the boys use what they learn here in Scouting for a real life experience,” Mr. Hixson said. “It just shows you what we are teaching the boys is not supercilious, and it is useful life skills. I am very proud that he had the common sense of I-know-how-to-do-that and went out and did it.”
”I was happy because I saved somebody’s life,” Nicky said.
For more information about how to join the Scouts in Manville, call Jim Kelly at 908-725-1025.
